November 15, 2024
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Thousands of Will County mail-in ballots waiting to be counted

Tuesday was the last day to send in mail-in ballots, and many are still in the mail

By Bob Okon
Election 2024
A drop box for mail-in ballots sits outside of the Will County Clerk's Office in downtown Joliet.

A drop box for mail-in ballots sits outside of the Will County Clerk's Office in downtown Joliet. Thousands of mail-in ballots arrived by mail in the last few days. (Alex Ortiz)

Several thousand mail-in ballots wait to be counted in Will County, leaving the outcome of close races in doubt after Tuesday.

Key positions, including county sheriff, county treasurer and possibly a judge’s seat, await a count of mail-in ballots still arriving at the Will County Clerk’s Office.

The thousands of ballots sitting in a vault at the county clerk’s office have arrived just since Sunday, when mail-in ballots already in hand were counted before Election Day on Tuesday. Ballots could be mailed in as late as Tuesday so an unknown number are still in the mail. All ballots that arrive by next Tuesday will be counted then.

“Probably like 5,000 ballots we have in our vault,” County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry said Wednesday morning. “We’ll be getting more in.”

Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry, who is running for re-election, works on her computer at her Will County office on midterm election night on Tuesday.

Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry works at her laptop on election night on Tuesday. (Gary Middendorf - gmiddendorf@shawmedia.com/Gary Middendorf)

Staley Ferry was estimating the number. Staff is counting the number of ballots, which remain unopened until next week. The number of mail-in ballots still to be counted by state law must be posted by the end of the day Thursday.

“I’m pushing them to get it done a little earlier because a lot of people are interested,” Staley Ferry said.

Among those interested is attorney Bob Bodach, who appears to have won a seat as a county judge by 1,430 votes over Jessica Colon-Sayre. But Bodach was at the county clerk’s office Wednesday to learn more about the votes still to be counted.

“I just want to be sure that there is an accurate count of the vote,” Bodach said.

Bodach’s lead is fairly close but more substantial than two other Republicans, who hope to see their Election Day margins hold up.

Republican Jim Reilly has a 289-vote lead over Sheriff Mike Kelley. Raj Pillai has a 478-vote lead over Treasurer Tim Brophy, a Democrat.

Mail-in voting trends in favor of Democrats locally as it does nationwide.

“The pundits say those will go two-to-one for Democrats,” Brophy said. “Will that hold true? I don’t know.”

Brophy is taking a wait-and-see approach. So is Pillai.

“We’ll just have to wait until it’s over,” Pillai said on election night.

Raj Pillai questions the minutes from the July 12th meeting at the Veterans Assistance Commission Committee meeting at the Will County Office Building. Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in Joliet.

Plainfield accountant Raj Pillai has a 478-vote lead in the race for Will County Treasurer, but the outcome awaits the count of thousands of late arriving mail-in votes. (Gary Middendorf)

It won’t be officially over until Nov 29, when the election is certified. Candidates then have five days to file for a discovery recount if the margin of victory is 5% or less.

Another key date is Nov. 22, when provisional ballots, which are reviewed after questions were raised about the voter’s eligibility, are counted.

As of Monday night, the county clerk had sent out 45,853 mail-in ballots and received 35,160 back.

Staley Ferry said it’s not unusual to get a rush of mail-in ballots arriving around Election Day.

“A lot of people wait until the last minute,” she said.