Krause won't concede House District 48 race
Voters will have to wait a couple of weeks until they know for dead-solid certain that they have a winner in the House 48th District Republican primary.
When the dust settled Tuesday night, Michael Connelly of Lisle was 51 votes ahead of Douglas Krause of Naperville. But there are more ballots left to tabulate, and Krause said Wednesday he isn't conceding until that happens.
"My goal here is to make sure every vote is counted," Krause said.
Connelly, who had declared victory Tuesday, said he respects Krause's decision.
"We'll let the process play itself out," he said.
Connelly, Krause and Dave Carlin of Naperville were running in the GOP primary in the district that includes portions of Naperville, Lisle, Wheaton, Woodridge and Bolingbrook.
The winner earns his party's nod to appear in the November general election to replace retiring state Rep. Jim Meyer.
No Democratic candidate filed to run in the primary, but that doesn't necessarily mean one won't appear on the November ballot.
Tuesday's results showed Connelly, a member of the DuPage County board, with 37 percent of the votes, while Krause, a Naperville city councilman, had 36.7 percent. Carlin, a College of DuPage trustee, trailed the field with 26.3 percent.
But both DuPage and Will counties still have absentee, provisional and grace period ballots to count. DuPage also has a memory card from one precinct that has yet to be counted.
No one knows exactly how many of those ballots may apply to the 48th District.
The counties have until Feb. 19 to tabulate the ballots and then another week to canvas the results.
After votes have been canvassed, candidates have five days to ask for a recount as long as they have received at least 95 percent of the total votes the projected winner received, according to state Board of Election officials.
Candidates can ask for a recount of up to 25 percent of the precincts in each jurisdiction -- in this case, the Will and DuPage county election authorities.
Krause has not yet decided if he will ask for a recount if he is still trailing once all the votes are in.
"I'm going to take this one day at a time and go accordingly," he said.
One of Connelly's opponents asked for a recount in their 2006 county board race in which about 69 votes separated the two.
"It didn't change a thing, but people are entitled to exercise their rights under the law," he said.
Throughout the recent election, all three candidates stressed keeping taxes low and improving transportation and education.
Connelly credited his grassroots support for giving him the necessary boost on Tuesday.
Krause said he believes his pledge to fight any new taxes and his 19 years of experience on the city council made him a front-runner.
Carlin could not be reached for comment.