Yarbrough showing strong lead in reelection bid as Cook County clerk

Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough appeared to be well on her way to a second term Tuesday, with unofficial election results showing her strongly fending off challenges from Republican Tony Peraica and Libertarian Joseph Schreiner.

With 70% of precincts counted, Yarbrough had 882,970 votes, or 70.3% of the total, while Peraica had 346,265 votes and Schreiner 27,312 votes.

Succeeding longtime incumbent David Orr in 2018, Yarbrough is the first woman and first African-American to hold the office of Cook County clerk.

Peraica is an attorney and former Cook County Board commissioner who was slated to run in the general election after no Republicans filed for the June 28 primary.

During Yarbrough's reelection campaign, the Maywood Democrat touted such innovations as updating the office's website for better constituent access, increasing the number of languages on voter ballots to 12, establishing a Fraud Department in Recording Operations with investigators, and starting a Help Desk with pro bono attorneys to help customers with legal questions.