Mail-in votes counted. Here’s an update on tight races in Belleville, Aviston
Former Belleville City Council member Lillian Schneider is set to return to her Ward 1 seat after election officials said her seven-vote lead in the April 4 election could not be flipped by the lone mail-in ballot that arrived by Tuesday’s deadline.
The unofficial results as of Tuesday showed that Schneider had 165 votes and Kurt Daesch had 158 in the city’s east side ward.
Election officials have to wait 14 days after an election to count mail-in ballots that are received after election day. The only mail-in ballot received in Ward 1 didn’t include a vote in the city council race, said Laura Kaemmerer of the St. Clair County Clerk’s office.
St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook said no other race results in St. Clair County would be affected by mail-in ballots.
The results are still considered unofficial until Holbrook completes a canvass of the results and sends them to the Illinois State Board of Elections. Holbrook and local election officials across the state have to do that by April 25.
Schneider, who served on the council from 2011 to 2015, is scheduled to attend the May 1 city council meeting. She said one of her first goals would be to work to publicize the city’s CodeRED program, which allows people to get phone alerts in emergency situations, such as the tornado that touched down in Ward 1 on Saturday. Residents can go to the city’s website to sign up for the free service.
Schneider said she also will check to find out which council committees she will be assigned to by Mayor Patty Gregory.
Daesch said Tuesday he would not challenge the election results.
“If Lillian won, congratulations,” he said.
In previous years, some election night results have flipped after mail-in ballots were counted.
In 2019, for example, former Belleville Alderman Andy Gaa had a seven-vote lead but ended up losing by three votes (313-310) to Chris Rothweiler in Ward 6 once the mail-in ballots were tallied.
Rothweiler was unopposed on April 4 and won reelection to the Ward 6 seat.
Schneider and Daesch were running for the Ward 1 seat, which was open because Ward 1 Alderman Joe Hazel, who has a pending aggravated driving under the influence charge, did not run for reelection. Hazel has a status conference hearing in St. Clair County Court scheduled for May 1.
Hazel was first elected to the council in 2015, when he defeated Schneider.
Aviston School District referendum
On election night, a referendum on the tax rate in Aviston School District 21 was tied at 428-428. The district includes precincts in Clinton and Madison counties.
After seven mail-in ballots were checked, the referendum ended up failing by one vote: 432 voted “no” and 431 voted “yes,” according unofficial results announced Tuesday by Clinton County Clerk Vicky Albers.
The results will become official after local election officials complete a canvass of the results and send them to the state by April 25.
The mail-in ballots were from Clinton County voters, Albers said. The Madison County precinct didn’t have mail-in ballots, she said.
The Aviston School District referendum asked whether the maximum annual tax rate in the district should be increased and established at 1.17% on taxable property instead of the present rate of 0.92%.
Aviston District 21 Superintendent Phil Hamil the school board wanted to increase this rate to raise funds to pay additional teachers since the district’s enrollment has increased 14% since 2019.
Voters have previously approved a plan to increase the size of the school building with six new classrooms, an expanded cafeteria and new meeting rooms for student services such as therapy.
Construction on this $5.5 million project is scheduled to begin this summer.
This story was originally published April 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
