McHenry County retabulating votes, citing 'anomalies'

McHenry County is retabulating votes cast in Tuesday's election due to “some anomalies” with the results, according to a statement on the clerk's website.

The clerk's office, working in concert with its hardware and software vendor, determined that some races were misreported Tuesday night.

“We are currently in the process of determining the full nature and scope of the issue, and developing a remediation with the expectation of retabulating results (Wednesday),” according to the statement on the county's election results page.

The retabulation calls into question the outcomes in numerous races, including municipal, school, parks and recreation, library, township and fire boards.

In an interview Wednesday with the Northwest Herald, Clerk Joseph Tirio said votes in the impacted races were “underreported” Tuesday night.

As results were coming in, certain races seemed to have “fewer votes than we would expect,” Tirio said. “And again you're looking at all these com(ing) in at once and there's a lot of activity going on, so it occupies a space in your head to take a closer look at that in the midst of, you know, everything that's going on.

A recount is set for 9 a.m. Thursday, during which election judges and poll watchers from both parties will be present.

He said officials are 90% sure what caused the issue but did not want to release that information until they are 100% certain, adding that it is “absolutely able to be fixed.”

McHenry County Democratic Party Chairwoman Kristina Zahorik said it was her team who alerted the clerk's office of the issues Tuesday night. Volunteer poll watchers noticed the tallies posted on the doors of three Cary polling places did not match what was reported online, she said.

These locations were Holy Cross Church, the Lake in the Hills Homeowners Association and August Kraus Senior Center, she said. The numbers across multiple races seemed low, but the most obvious was the race for the District 26 board in which two candidates — Stacey Sault and Julie Jette — received either just a few votes or zero across these three precincts.

• Shaw Media contributed to this report.