Bean gains in 8th District race, but only slightly

Democratic Congresswoman Melissa Bean pulled just 15 votes closer to Republican rival Joe Walsh on Friday after another day of counting ballots in their race for the 8th Congressional District seat.

Walsh stood 350 votes ahead of the three-term incumbent when Cook County election officials wrapped a second day tallying absentee and provisional ballots from Schaumburg, Palatine and Barrington townships.

Walsh now has 97,576 votes combined from Cook, Lake and McHenry counties, to Bean's 97,226.

“What we're seeing is another day, another count, and the margin has shrunk,” Bean spokesman Jonathan Lipman said.

Officials in Lake and McHenry counties say they will wait until Nov. 16 to begin counting provisional votes and absentee ballots that arrived after Election Day.

If vote totals remain this close on Nov. 16, either Bean, of Barrington, or Walsh, of McHenry, could request a recount.

Lipman said the Bean camp is not yet considering that option.

“We're still focused on counting the first time,” he said.

In order to seek a recount, a losing candidate must be within 5 percent of the winner's votes, which will to be an issue in the 8th District. Since the close of the polls Tuesday, Walsh and Bean's vote totals have been well within half a percentage point of each other.

The Associated Press, which projected a winner in every other Illinois contes, including the race for governor, said the 8th District is too close to call.

In the meantime, though, Walsh is acting like and being treated as the winner.

On Friday evening, he was interviewed on the Fox Business Channel regarding his position health care costs will rise because of this year's reform bill.

“This was really good news today,” Walsh later told the Daily Herald when asked about the new vote totals. “Cook County is really, for all intents and purposes, done.”

Because of the technology used in elections today, Walsh believes a recount would make little difference in a contest decided by more than 10 to 20 votes.

A discovery recount, if requested, would focus on up to 25 percent of the 8th District's 503 precincts. The process would cost the candidate who requests it $10 per precinct, or up to $1,250.

Results of the discovery recount would then be brought to court, where a judge would decide whether to authorize a total recount, Cook County Clerk's Office spokeswoman Courtney Greve said.

Lake County Clerk Willard Helander said her office already has received at least 517 valid absentee ballots in the 8th District that won't be counted until Nov. 16. The county continues to receive more every day, but many are arriving with postmarks too late to be counted.

McHenry County Clerk Katherine Schultz said she has no way of telling how many valid absentee votes her office has received.

Walsh has received his strongest support from the Lake and McHenry county portions of the 8th District, while Bean has been the clear winner among Cook County voters.