Trevor seeks discovery recount in narrow House race loss to Morrison
Democrat Maggie Trevor has asked for a discovery recount in her narrow election loss to GOP state Rep. Tom Morrison.
Morrison, who has held the 54th District seat since 2010, beat Trevor by just 43 votes last month, according to results certified Monday by the Illinois State Board of Elections.
But the discovery recount, which officials say could happen sometime this week or next, allows Trevor's campaign to take a sampling of ballots from a select number of precincts before deciding whether to go to court to ask for a full recount.
"It's a discovery process," Trevor said Tuesday. "We basically are having the recount to see if anything changes. If so, what? And if that's the case, then we will make a decision based on that.
"I feel it's important given the very, very close margin here that we do our due diligence and make sure we've explored this avenue," Trevor said.
Trevor, a Rolling Meadows market research/business consultant who made her first run for office, has declined to concede the race since the Nov. 6 election as the vote margin grew tighter.
As provisional and late-arriving mail ballots were being counted over the past month, Morrison's lead of less than 500 votes on election night shrunk to 242, then 37 when the Cook County clerk's office canvassed the results before Thanksgiving.
The current 43-vote lead for Morrison reflects a discrepancy the clerk's office found in the postelection canvass, which required officials to correct it by rerunning the optical scan ballots in one precinct, according to office spokesman James Scalzitti.
The discovery recount, which could take place at the clerk's office and a warehouse where the ballots are being stored, will examine ballots in 19 of the district's 77 precincts.
Morrison, an eight-year incumbent from Palatine, declared victory after the Cook County clerk's office finalized results. He didn't respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
The 54th District includes portions of Arlington Heights, Barrington, Hoffman Estates, Inverness, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and South Barrington.