Tight Will County sheriff's race won't be decided for days
The two candidates locked in a tight race for Will County sheriff say they don't expect to know who won Tuesday's election until Nov. 18.
With all 310 precincts reporting, unofficial results show Republican Ken Kaupas leading Democrat Mike Kelly by just 170 votes - 94,085 to 93,915.
With such a razor-thin margin, both men say they'll have to wait until all the votes have been counted, including absentee, grace period and provisional ballots. That count is not expected to be completed until later this month.
The candidates are competing to replace Paul Kaupas, who is retiring after 12 years as sheriff. Ken and Paul Kaupas are second cousins.
"At this point, I guess I am in the better of the two positions, but I think it's really premature to speculate on who's actually going to win this," Ken Kaupas said Wednesday.
"I know Mike has made comments that he's not ready to concede and I completely understand where he's at with that," Kaupas said. "And I think if the shoe were on the other foot, I'd be taking the same posture."
Kelley said he isn't surprised a clear winner didn't emerge Tuesday.
"I knew it was going to be a close race all along," he said Wednesday. "It's been like that since we started campaigning."
Kelley said he has no plans to give up.
"I'm down a little bit here, but I'm not out of it yet," he said.
Kaupas, of Shorewood, worked for the state police for 26 years before retiring in 2009. He is currently the deputy chief of investigations in Will County.
Kelley is from Lockport and has spent about 26 years with the sheriff's office, with his most recent job as a sergeant in investigations.
If he gets the job, Kaupas has said his top priorities will be drug enforcement and offering cost-effective, high-quality service. Kelley said he wants to target heroin dealers, improve staff morale, combine evidence storage in one building instead of the current four and create 12-hour shifts that would increase patrol coverage during the busiest times.