Cook County State’s Attorney election still too close to call

CHICAGO — It has been a week and a day since the polls closed for the Illinois Primaries, but there’s still no clear winner in the Democratic Primary for Cook County State’s Attorney.

The race between Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris III remains razor-thin. After the Chicago Board of Elections (CBOE) and Cook County election officials stopped counting mail-in ballots on Wednesday, results show O’Neill-Burke leads Harris by a total of 1,637 votes.

The running total count of votes currently sits at 263,527-261,890 in favor of O’Neill-Burke, but when broken down further, Harris leads in the City of Chicago, while O’Neill-Burke leads in the suburbs of Cook County.

All Illinois Primary Election Results

A spokeswoman for the Clayton Harris III campaign provided the following statement Wednesday evening:

“Given the evolving dynamics in this race since Election Day, it is important to wait and ensure every vote is counted through the April 2 deadline.”

A spokesperson for the CBOE told WGN News about 2,800 votes were added to the unofficial results Wednesday, but also said there are still more than 53,000 outstanding vote-by-mail ballots still left to be processed.

According to Illinois state law, election officials have until April 2 to finish counting mail-in ballots that are arriving late, but they said they hope to have final results sooner than that date.

Once a nominee is declared for the Democratic Party, they will then face off against two other candidates — one from the Republican Party, and the other from the Libertarian Party — in the Nov. 5 General Election.

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