The Peoria County Election Commission is still waiting on, and counting, votes.
In Illinois, officials have14 days after the election to receive mail-in ballots and tabulate them for a final count. To be included, the ballots have to be postmarked by election day.
“Peoria County currently has around just over 3,600 vote by mail ballots still out that could potentially come back in,” said commission executive director Elizabeth Gannon.
Those votes could make a difference in some local races. For example, the Tuesday night result of the race for 10th District Circuit Court resident judge could easily be flipped by mail-in ballots. Democratic challenger John Spears holds a slim seven vote lead over Republican incumbent Frank Ierulli.
Though there are still votes out there to count, it will be fewer overall votes than the last presidential election. Gannon told WCBU on Monday that her office had received more than 18,000 mail-in ballots and 24,000 early voters, accounting for almost 35% of the registered voters in the county.
Those numbers would appear to suggest record high voter turnout heading into election day itself, but, as Gannon explains, that wasn’t the case.
“We had a great voter turnout where I think we’re going to hit right around 70% here in Peoria County,” she said. “So I am, I’m very happy with how election day went.”
However, Gannon said the 2020 presidential election saw just under 75% voter turnout.
If you voted by mail, you can check the status of your ballot here.
Gannon said the election commission will be conducting counts of newly received ballots on Tuesdays and Thursdays until the end of the two week period. The first updated counts will be live here on the Peoria Election Commission’s website before 5 p.m. Thursday.
