Not over yet; Wheeling trustee seat still in limbo

Mary Papantos holds a razor-thin lead Tuesday for the last seat on the Wheeling village board, but write-in candidate Joe Vito is disputing 33 ballots for him that weren't counted - ballots that could give him the seat.

The Cook County Clerk's Office on Tuesday canvassed write-in ballots received on Election Day, April 7, and mailed-in ballots that arrived in the last week.

At the end of the day Papantos altogether had 875 votes and Vito had 851 counted write-in votes, 24 short. All the vote totals are unofficial, said county clerk spokeswoman Courtney Greve.

However, at the center of Vito's dispute are 33 instances in which voters wrote Vito's name on the ballot, but did not draw a line connecting two ends of an arrow next to his name on the ballot.

The clerk's office doesn't have the discretion to count those votes based on state law and legal precedent, Greve said.

Vito, an attorney, says those ballots should be counted because voters clearly intended to vote for him. Doing so would give him a 9-vote lead over Papantos, who is making her third attempt at the office.

Vito says he's prepared to file a lawsuit against the clerk's office demanding that it count the 33 votes after the tallies are certified by the end of the month.

"I'm going to do whatever I have to do to make sure those voters are heard," he said.

Papantos sides with the county. She refused to claim a win based on unofficial totals, but she says she's feeling more optimistic.

"The instructions are very complete," Papantos said. "(They say) put in the arrow. The election judges have that information ... People didn't do it. It doesn't count, and that's how the county has always done it."

Vito believes he can't overtake Papantos with uncounted mail-in or provisional ballots. The clerk's office will get a better sense Wednesday of how many of such ballots are yet to be counted, but Greve concedes it's a small number.

"It's a handful," she said.

Vito did give kudos to the clerk's office for conducting the canvass directly in front of him and Papantos.

Village President Dean Argiris also attended. He supports Vito's contention that the 33 votes should be counted, bringing Vito's total to 884 votes.

"Clearly, clearly there was 884 votes for Mr. Vito," Argiris said.

Should the race get tangled up in court, Argiris has asked the village attorney to look into who to swear-in when the trustees-elect are expected to take their seats May 4.

"I don't want to embarrass anybody," said Argiris, refusing to opine on whether Vito or Papantos should be at the swearing-in.

But he said Papantos shouldn't announce a victory "out of respect for the system."

"You have to respect those who came out and voted for (Vito)," he said.

Argiris endorsed Vito's slate, which included incumbent trustees Ray Lang and David Vogel, both of whom easily won re-election. Vito is currently a trustee, appointed to the village board by Argiris after the death of trustee Bob Heer in December. His appointed term is up with the April 7 election.

Reflecting on one of the closest races in recent village history, Argiris had this to say about people who think their votes don't matter: "Baloney."