Joliet candidates will see final mail-in vote April 18

The number of mail-in ballots yet to be counted has reached 4,271, according to the Will County Clerk Office’s website.

Candidates trailing in close elections are looking to the uncounted ballots as potential difference-makers before the vote count from the election Tuesday becomes final.

The Will County Clerk’s Office plans to count all remaining ballots April 18, Chief of Staff Charles Pelkie said.

That includes 121 provisional ballots that were cast on election day but disputed.

Mail-in ballots not yet counted are those postmarked by election day but arriving later. Mail-in ballots that arrived by Tuesday already have been included in the vote totals recorded by the clerk’s office that night.

The 4,271 mail-in ballots yet to be counted are from throughout Will County.

In Joliet, the apparent winners in two elections have leads of fewer than 100 votes.

Suzanna Ibarra leads incumbent council member Terry Morris by 50 votes in District 5, where 2,551 votes have been counted so far.

In District 4, Cesar Cardenas leads Christopher Parker by 67 votes. The total vote count in the district so far is 2,156.

Pat Mudron holds a wider lead in District 2, where 4,780 votes were counted as of Tuesday night.

But Quinn Adamowski, who trails Mudron by 247 votes, said he has some hope because of the large number of votes cast in District 2.

Mudron is counting on the voting trend that emerged Tuesday night to continue when those last votes are counted.

“In one sense, the race was always close, but I was always ahead,” Mudron said. “I assume the spread will stay the same.”