With late ballots counted, results of two St. Clair County township races have flipped
Results from the April 6 election changed in two St. Clair County races Tuesday when the clerk’s office counted ballots that had not yet been processed.
The outcomes of the Canteen Township supervisor’s race and in the Stookey Township trustee race have flipped, according to unofficial results reported by St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook.
In the Canteen Township supervisor’s race, Norman Miller was trailing by two votes to Debbie Moore on Election Day but now has the lead by 23 votes. Miller has 829 votes and Moore has 806.
Miller gained 44 votes with Tuesday’s count of provisional and late ballots to overcome Moore, who gained 21 new votes since April 6.
In the Stookey Township trustee race, Ryan Stookey was trailing to Daniel Barger by three voted on Election Day but now has a six-vote lead. Stookey has 567 votes to Barger’s 561.
Stookey and Barger were vying for the fourth available seat on the board of trustees.
Stookey gained 26 votes, while Barger gained 17 votes to jump into the still unofficial lead.
In the Belleville City Council Ward 2 race, Jamie Eros had an eight-vote lead on Election Day but, after Tuesday’s vote count, increased her lead by another vote. Eros collected 158 votes while Randy Randolph had 149 votes and Michael Buettner had 146.
The votes counted on Tuesday included mail-in ballots received on or after Election Day, provisional ballots and challenged ballots.
“Everything’s counted now,” St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook said.
The results from Tuesday are still considered unofficial until they are certified later this month.
Illinois law calls for election officials to wait 14 days to receive and hold ballots that were not counted on Election Day.
Holbrook said about 830 ballots from across the county were counted Tuesday. All of the updated election results are expected to be posted on the clerk’s website by Wednesday.
Now that all the ballots have been counted, it’s up to the losing candidate to decide whether to challenge the count.
In 2019, Andy Gaa challenged the results in the Belleville City Council Ward 6 race. He had the lead on Election Day but then lost the lead to Chris Rothweiler after the mail-in ballots were counted. After the ballots were checked in one precinct, Gaa ended his challenge and Rothweiler took the victory.
Madison County on Tuesday also counted mail-in ballots that were not processed on April 6 and the count did not change any results.
