Election recount for Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 shows different incumbent now on track to retain seat

One Crystal Lake Elementary School District 47 incumbent no longer is on track to retain her seat after a recount by the McHenry County Clerk’s Office, unofficial results released Friday show.

Instead, a different incumbent, Betsy Les, looks likely to keep her seat.

Four seats are up this election cycle, and three of the seats still are expected to be filled by Tim Mahaffy, the outgoing superintendent of Fox River Grove School District 3; Debra Barton, a retired school administrator; and another incumbent, Jonathan Powell.

Tuesday’s results originally had Mahaffy in first place in the four-seat race with 20.6% of the vote, incumbent Emily Smith in second with 20.2%, Barton in third with 20% and Powell in fourth with 17.4% of the vote.

However, the McHenry County Clerk’s Office on Tuesday night discovered the underreporting of votes in certain races across the county.

It was later determined that the underreporting was caused by changes made to the language on some ballots. These changes altered the spacing of the document just enough to interfere with the machinery’s ability to read votes correctly.

McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio’s office conducted a full countywide recount of votes Thursday out of what he called an “abundance of caution” and released corrected election results Friday afternoon.

These results do not yet include all vote-by-mail and provisional ballots, as these could be received and processed up to 14 days after the election, according to the clerk’s office.

Les could not be reached for comment Friday.

Smith, a real estate agent appointed to the board in August 2019, said she is disappointed to have potentially lost her seat, as she felt she brought a unique perspective to the board and worked hard to educate herself on the issues.

“Those that have been elected have a great deal of knowledge and experience,” Smith said in an email to the Northwest Herald. “They will all be great, productive members of the board.”

Smith added that she’s particularly pleased that Les was appointed again.

“She is a huge asset to our district,” Smith said. “As I had to work hard to learn about the district, I feel encouraged that the elected board members will work hard to learn from all perspectives and represent the community as a whole.”

Smith said she does not plan on contesting the results, adding that she is glad the county clerk’s office identified and solved the problem.