The Chicago Board of Elections says it "mistakenly left out" 10,000 vote-by-mail ballots when tabulating the results for the Democratic primary race for Cook County state's attorney that is currently separated by approximately 2,000 votes, the Daily Mail reported.
At last count in the race to head the nation's second-largest prosecutor's office, Eileen O'Neill Burke was in the lead with 259,445 votes, while Clayton Harris III had 257,430.
The vote-by-mail ballots were delivered last Monday, and is unclear why they were not included during the original count for Election Day, which was the following day.
Chicago Board of Elections Public Information Officer Max Bever said in a statement that "I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out numbers this past week as quickly as I could," emphasizing that "I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused the voters of Chicago. I will share updated numbers only when they are accurate and verified."
He added that "there will be additional results coming in, both large and small, through the next week. We continue to ask for voters' patience as the process plays out, and by law all the votes are counted."
Bever made it clear to ABC7 that "this is not an issue of recently found ballots or missing ballots. This was an issue that I was getting out about how many vote-by-mail ballots we have received on Election Day. What I had not done was realize additional vote-by-mail ballots were received on Monday the 18."
Neither candidate has conceded or declared victory, nor has The Associated Press called the race.
The winner of the primary is expected to win outright in November, since the county is a Democrat stronghold.
The race is open because sitting Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced last April that she would not seek a third term, The Post Millennial reported.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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