Some races hang in balance in McHenry County local election; final ballots to be counted by April 15

Write-in and remaining mail-in votes in Tuesday’s local election will be available by the end of the day April 15, the McHenry County Clerk’s Office posted Wednesday morning on Facebook.

Write-in votes don’t appear on the county’s election results page, and it wasn’t known Tuesday night when those votes would be counted.

Candidates running as write-ins in the county include former McHenry County Board member Lou Ness running for Woodstock City Council, Jake Justen running for Crystal Lake City Council and Paul Herely running against incumbent Mayor Mike Kelly in Harvard.

Write-in candidacies are often long shots, but it’s not unheard of for them to win. Crystal Lake Mayor Haig Haleblian won as a write-in two years ago, but he was the only candidate in the race.

April 15 also will mark the final updates for votes, as mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Tuesday have two weeks after the election to arrive to the clerk’s office to count.

Counting the last of the mail-in votes could determine the outcome of races that remain close. For example, in McCullom Lake – which has a population of less than 1,000 people – incumbent Village President Marilyn Shepit trails challenger Terry Counley by 11 votes. Only 157 votes have been tallied so far in that race.

All the election results are unofficial until the official canvass, which is scheduled for April 22, according to the post. Results will be official after that point.