Early voting doesn't mean early results

The level of instant gratification when it came to reporting results election night really depended on where you lived.

Quirks in the voting systems and computer technology used by various counties meant that early voting tallies didn't emerge all that early in some areas.

In Lake County, for example, officials waited until receiving Tuesday vote totals from precincts before plugging in early voting and absentee ballots.

It's just a function of how the election database works, Clerk Willard Helander said Monday.

"Sometimes one precinct is hanging out there holding everything up," she said. "But we'd rather be slow and accurate."

It's a similar situation in McHenry County.

Clerk Katherine Schultz said early voting ballots would be counted only after all Tuesday's precinct reports are added up.

But election officials with Cook and DuPage counties expected to start processing early voting tallies once polls closed.

And in Kane County, early voting information should have been "the first thing you see," on the election results Web site, Clerk Jack Cunningham said.