Republican Nerheim leads Democratic challenger in Lake County state's attorney race

Unofficial results in the Lake County state's attorney's race show incumbent Republican Michael Nerheim with a substantial lead over his Democratic challenger Eric Rinehart, but there were still too many uncertainties to claim victory.

"I know there are still a lot of votes out there," Nerheim said.

Available totals by 10:30 p.m. Tuesday showed Nerheim ahead 41,757 to 25,335.

"I tried very hard to run a campaign that was based on my experience and my accomplishments," Nerheim said, "and I did not go negative. And I hope that that message resonated with the voters."

For his part, Rinehart remained hopeful.

"We know the Republicans vote on Election Day, so we are slightly above where we wanted to be with the Election Day vote," he said Tuesday night. "We knew the Republicans weren't going to vote by mail. We're excited about what we're seeing in terms of the numbers."

The Lake County clerk said early voting, vote by mail, provisional ballots and late arriving vote by mail ballots are not included in the totals.

Mail in ballot requests in Lake County amounted to 170,232. Of those, 111,114 were returned and 59,118 were not. Mail-in ballots can still be counted as late as Nov. 17 if they're postmarked by Election Day.

There were 123,558 early votes in Lake County.

A total of 234,672 early and votes by mail were returned.

During his campaign, Nerheim, of Gurnee, who has held office for eight years, highlighted the strides his office has made.

He pointed to the creation of a Case Review Panel to identify and prevent wrongful convictions.

He said he has enhanced the Lake County Children's Advocacy Center.

In addition, he said he has founded the Lake County Opioid Initiative, and made available comfort dogs and an electronic detection police dog.

He also, he said, worked with the U.S. Office of National Drug Policy to get Lake County a High Intensive Drug Trafficking Area designation.

He said he has also created special divisions for prosecuting gangs, crimes of domestic violence and A Way Out substance abuse diversion program.

As for his plans if he wins, he said, "What I really want to make sure we accomplish, and we're almost there, is the crisis intervention center." The facility would divert people who struggle with mental illness or substance abuse away from the criminal justice system and into treatment.

His opponent, Reinhart, of Highwood, criticized Nerheim's record on wrongful convictions.