Chicago Board of Elections finds 10,000 missing ballots in Dem DA primary race after 'tabulation' error

10,000 vote-by-mail ballots were "mistakenly left out" of the Democrat primary race for Cook County state’s attorney in Illinois, with the Chicago Board of Elections looking to add these ballots into the race that is currently separated by around 2,000 votes.

According to the Daily Mail, Eileen O’Neil Burke leads Clayton Harris III by 2,015 votes at last count.

"I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out the numbers this week as quickly as I could," said Chicago Board of Elections Public Information Officer Max Bever.

"I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused to voters of Chicago. I will share updated numbers only when they are accurate and verified," he added. "There will be additional results coming in, both large and small, through the next week."

"We continue to ask for voters’ patience as the process plays out, and by law all votes are counted."

This batch of vote-by-mail ballots was delivered on Monday, March 18. It is unclear why the ballots were not included in the original count. Election day in the state for that and other races was March 19.

"I made an error that should have been included in the 'received by Election Day' numbers," Bever added.

"This is not an issue of recently found ballots or missing ballots. This was an issue that I was getting out about how many vote-by-mail ballots we have received on Election Day. What I had not done was realize additional vote-by-mail ballots were received on Monday the 18th," Bever said, according to ABC 7.

"There will be additional results coming in, both large and small, through the next week."

Harris has slowly closed the gap on Burke since Election Day, with neither candidate conceding or declaring victory and the Associated Press not calling the race yet.

The race is open because sitting Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced in April 2023 that she would not seek a third term. The winner of the primary is expected to win the race in November, as the county is a Democrat stronghold.