With L. Rob Russell down by 205 votes to Donald E. Kramer in the Kane County sheriff primary, absentee ballots will play a large role in deciding the election.
Kane County Clerk John Cunningham said they have 14 days after the election to count up the absentee ballots. He said there are 340 republican ballots still out and 200 left to come in, several of which came in Thursday. They are now in the process of counting these ballots.
“Nothing is final until the candidates (say so),” Cunningham said. “Which will probably be in two weeks. We’ll get it done as quickly as we can, but we have to follow the law.”
As the numbers stand, Russell holds a slight advantage in Kane County with 44.68 percent of the vote to Kramer’s 42.21 percent of the vote. Russell has 14,272 total votes to Kramer’s 13,483, giving him a 789 vote lead. In Aurora, Kramer leads Russell 63.34 percent to Russell’s 36.66 percent. Kramer had 2,360 total votes to Russell’s 1,366 at press time. This gives Kramer a 994-vote lead in Aurora and a 205-vote lead overall.
“Historically what happens is (the absentee ballots don’t) all go one way,” Cunningham said. “Theoretically it could change, but the reality is of the ones that I’ve seen before, it doesn’t have that large of a swing.”
When contacted on Wednesday, the day after the primary election, both candidates were eager to see the votes come in.
“I’m a patient person,” Kramer said. “I can wait. ... Just like all the other candidates, you wait it out.”
Russell expressed similar sentiments, saying “we need to wait until all votes have been counted.”
Russell said early Wednesday that he is consulting with people in the Republican party to see whether they should pursue a recount, but Cunningham said it may not be worth it to have a county-wide recount.
“They have a right of a free exploratory recount if they’re within a certain percentage, I believe five,’ Cunningham said, saying they would pick ten precincts and recount them. “(The candidate) would have to make up their mind if they wanted to spend the money to go for a total recount, which is expensive.
“All of the exploratory recounts we’ve had so far with the new (electronic) equipment, there’s no longer challenges because of chads,” Cunningham said. “I think we’ve had a couple of them so far, and it ended up at 100 percent. ... The same as what it was before.”
Cunningham said this usually disheartens candidates and they say “forget it.” He said most are drained and in disbelief that they didn’t secure enough votes after months of campaigning.
“There are all kinds of psychological things that go on with winning candidates and losing candidates,” Cunningham said.
The winner of the primary election would go on to challenge Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez in the Nov. 2 election.
