The Jackson County State's Attorney race is still too close to call...
As of Wednesday morning Democrat challenger Marsha Cascio-Hale and Republican incumbent Joe Cervantez were in a statistical tie with each having 10,805 votes.
Jackson County Clerk Frank Byrd says it is unusual to have a tie like this, but the county will work through the process with the State Board of Elections. Byrd says they are now waiting to see how many vote by mail ballots are returned. He says the county must process all that were post marked on or by election day. The Illinois State Board of Elections shows that 3,429 vote by mail ballots were requested in Jackson County. The county's unofficial results indicates 2,470 vote by mail ballots have been counted in the race for State's Attorney.
Byrd says County election judges will also tabulate provisional ballots that were cast in person by voters who had requested vote by mail ballots, but did not have the requested ballot or other documentation to turn in when they voted in person. Byrd says that will take place 13-days after the election.
Jackson County voters turned out in mass. Byrd says in-person voting was historic. 69.4% of Jackson County's registered voters cast ballots in the General Election. Depending on how close the final outcome is in the Jackson County State's Attorney race, the Illinois State Board of Elections says a candidate can request a discovery recount of ballots in 25% of the precincts - if the margin of loss is 5% or less. A judge would then decide if there were grounds for a recount.
