Only 11 votes separate 2 DuPage board candidates
It turns out every vote does count in the southeastern part of DuPage County.
Unofficially, Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso defeated Sharon Bryant of Bolingbrook for the third District 3 seat on the county board. But the 11-vote margin of victory that Grasso clings to in the race could change when the election results are deemed official later this month.
Meanwhile, Bryant said she’s already considering the possibility of requesting a partial recount.
“I am currently reviewing all my options with my attorney,” the Democrat wrote in an email on Wednesday.
Grasso says he can’t blame her because unofficial results show him with 33,286 votes and Bryant with 33,275 votes.
The next closest county board race was in District 2, where Sean Noonan of Elmhurst defeated fellow Republican Elaine Zannis of Oak Brook by 90 votes, according to unofficial results.
Still, that result is dramatically different from the margin separating Grasso and Bryant.
Even Grasso acknowledges that he’s not yet certain he won.
“Until it’s all in, I’m not sure,” the Republican said. “It’s too close. But I am glad to be on this side of the 11 votes.”
In the meantime, there are still more votes waiting to be counted.
DuPage County Election Commission Executive Director Robert Saar said there still are more than 2,000 provisional ballots that must be reviewed. In addition, the commission has to wait until Nov. 20 for absentee ballots to arrive by mail.
As a result, Saar said DuPage’s election results won’t become official until Nov. 23.
Then it’s up to candidates to decide if they want to move to the next step.
By law, up to 25 percent of the precincts in a particular race can be examined as part of a partial recount, called a discovery. Saar said the discovery is done to help candidates determine if a court order should be sought to get a complete recount.
Saar said that DuPage has had 67 discoveries in his 31 years with the election commission. None of them resulted in a full recount.