DuPage County recorder candidate secures nomination after recount

DuPage County recorder candidate Moon Khan was declared the winner of last month's Democratic primary on Thursday and his name will appear on the November ballot for the post.

Less than six hours into a court-ordered recount, it was determined Khan received more than the 844 write-in votes he needed during the March 15 primary to earn his party's nomination.

He now will advance to the November general election to face Republican Recorder Fred Bucholz.

"I'm thrilled to know I was vindicated," Khan said. "This confirms what I suspected."

The Lombard resident sought the recount after official results from the DuPage County Election Commission gave him credit for just 699 write-in votes, even though more than 4,100 Democrats cast ballots in the uncontested primary for the recorder's position.

During the weeks following the election, Khan and his attorney found numerous precincts where people insisted they voted for Khan even though the results didn't reflect it.

In fact, Khan initially got credit for only one vote in his own precinct, even though he voted for himself, as did his wife, son, and neighbor.

The situation is similar to what happened in the GOP primary, where three Republican precinct committeeman candidates in Wayne Township picked up dozens of additional write-in votes during a court-ordered recount. Two of those candidates ended up getting elected after first being told they didn't have enough votes.

Khan sued county election officials to get his recount and a judge granted his request on Tuesday.

Thursday's recount started - and ended - with bipartisan election judges reviewing write-in votes submitted on paper ballots.

As part of the court order, it was agreed the recount would stop once Khan had the votes needed to appear on the fall ballot.

Commission attorney Pat Bond said it appears some election judges on March 15 improperly deemed some of the write-in votes Khan received invalid.

"They looked at them," Bond said. "There's clearly evidence that they reviewed those, and they rejected them. They said they weren't valid."

He said the judges who reviewed the ballots on Thursday disagreed and concluded that at least 170 votes that were disqualified on Election Night were valid.

"Today's recount exposed the flaws in the voting procedures of DuPage County," Khan said.

He said the election commission should conduct an internal investigation to determine how the initial count could have been so inaccurate.

Commission officials have said all election judges were instructed before the primary that a candidate's name didn't have to be spelled correctly for a write-in vote to count.

Commission officials say election judges will get additional training in the future to avoid such problems.

"In light of what we've seen," Bond said, "we're going to let the parties know that they need to have people who understand what their obligation and requirements are."