{"id":329170,"date":"2010-02-16T20:24:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T01:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a8a90aaa970b"},"modified":"2010-02-16T20:40:30","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T01:40:30","slug":"dillard-might-not-seek-republican-governor-recount-unless-he-trails-by-less-than-100-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/329170","title":{"rendered":"Dillard might not seek Republican governor recount unless he trails by less than 100 votes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Rick Pearson and Ray Long<\/em> at 7:23 p.m.
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<\/br>As election officials across Illinois continued to tally the final trickle of uncounted ballots in the disputed Republican governor race today, state Sen. Kirk Dillard indicated he would not push for a recount unless he trailed rival state Sen. Bill Brady by 100 votes or less.
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<\/br>But Dillard could face difficulties getting that close. The Hinsdale lawmaker contended he had cut in half Brady\u2019s 420-vote lead as election offices went through final absentee ballots and provisional ballots cast by voters who were not on registration lists, but claimed they met voting requirements.
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<\/br>\u201cI want to do everything possible to avoid a recount,\u201d Dillard said. \u201cBut if it’s around a hundred votes or less, then a recount is a possibility.\u201d
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<\/br>Dampening talk of going through the expensive process, Dillard said the difference \u201cwould have to be very low before I’d put the state or my party through a recount.\u201d
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<\/br>Brady, a veteran legislator from Bloomington, stopped short of claiming victory. But he said he is\u00a0 confident that after the remaining uncounted votes are totaled, \u201cwe\u2019ll be nearer the 400 (vote) margin than anything else.\u201d
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<\/br>\u201cWe\u2019re confident this will go without being contested. We don\u2019t see any irregularities at this point,\u201d Brady said. \u201cIf he\u2019s using 100 (votes) as a benchmark, we\u2019re confident we\u2019ll be above that.\u201d
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<\/br>Late unofficial vote counts from election authorities in the more-populous six-county Chicago region showed Dillard cutting into Brady\u2019s lead by nearly 200 votes. Still, final tallying continues in downstate counties where, despite fewer votes being cast, Brady has held an advantage over Dillard.
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<\/br>Dillard maintained the differential could be made up in the Chicago suburbs by counting provisional ballots \u2014 most of which are routinely tossed. Dillard said he won\u2019t make a decision on whether to concede the race until the State Board of Elections certifies the results March 5.
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<\/br>But a challenge based on provisional votes could become a messy one, and Dillard said he\u2019s unsure he would press for more of them to be counted. Dillard\u2019s low threshold for considering a recount reflects the advances in electronic vote-tabulation technology. Local election officials have until Feb. 23 to re-test their results and send them to the state.
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<\/br>\u201cThe local election authorities need to canvass and have time to double-check their math,\u201d Dillard said. \u201cAnd I’d like to see a preliminary tabulation by the actual election authority, the State Board of Elections\u2026especially when you’re talking about 200 votes out of about three-quarters of a million cast. Mistakes do happen.\u201d
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<\/br>While Republicans continued to sort out their state standard bearer for the November election, Scott Lee Cohen, the embattled pawnbroker who won the Democratic lieutenant governor contest, had papers submitted Tuesday formally resigning the nomination. Democratic leaders are expected to convene after the March 5 ballot certification to propose a replacement to team up with Gov. Pat Quinn on the ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by Rick Pearson and Ray Long at 7:23 p.m.As election officials across Illinois continued to tally the final trickle of uncounted ballots in the disputed Republican governor race today, state Sen. Kirk Dillard indicated he would not push for a recount unless he trailed rival state Sen. Bill Brady by 100 votes or less.But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}