Homer Township Supervisor and Will County Board member Steve Balich | Balich campaign
Homer Township Supervisor and Will County Board member Steve Balich | Balich campaign
Homer Township Supervisor and Will County Board member Steve Balich is calling for the state to adopt more stringent rules over mail-in ballots after late ballots overturned results in three county-wide Will County elections.
“If you're going to have mail-in ballots they should be cut off two weeks before the election,” Balich said. “So then you have Election Day and then none of the stuff goes on for a week after the election week. I don't like that at all. But that's not up to our county. It's up to the state. It disturbs me that you have that happen, because that implies that, you know, people think it doesn't mean it's true or false. It just implies it's an easy way to cheat, get an extra ballot or two from each precinct then and you can flip our county-wide election. I'm not saying that happened.”
Will County Sheriff Mike Kelley was 289 votes behind his Republican opponent, Jim Reilly, on election night.
That changed on Tuesday when Kelley gained a probable unassailable lead of 2,244 votes thanks to a largely Democratic segment of voting.
Tim Brophy, a Democrat running for reelection as treasurer, gave Raj Pillai the victory as well. Prior to the counting of the late ballots, Pillai had a lead of 478 votes, but now he was down by 1,930. Democratic Associate Judge Jessica Colon-Sayre lost the election to Republican Joliet Attorney Bob Bodach by a margin of 1,430 votes. She was in the lead after the late votes were tallied by 1,322 votes.
Some questioned the optics of the late Democratic vote surge a week after the election on Nov. 8.
“Over 6,400 vote-by-mail votes dropped in Will County today," Safe Suburbs USA PAC said on Twitter. "A full week after Election Day. Changing the results of multiple races. And people wonder why confidence in the system is being lost."
Democrats were favored for the election statewide holding onto all statewide elected offices — including governor and the Illinois State Supreme Court. Democrats also held their supermajorities in both houses of the General Assembly.
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