Joe Terrell

Thursday was the official discovery recount conducted by Winnebago County election officials in the race for Harlem Township Supervisor.  

A "discovery" recount means 25%, that is 7 of the 28 precincts, could be recounted.  In that process one ballot was found to be in error and cause the vote gap between me and my opponent to narrow to THREE votes.  Obviously, that isn't enough to change the outcome of the election.

I received word from the Winnebago County Clerk that the absentee ballots have been added to the vote totals in the race for Harlem Township Supervisor.  Prior to the counting of the absentee ballots, I was down by five votes with a total vote count of 2041 to 2046.  Now that the absentee ballots have been counted, the vote total is 2045 to 2049 in my opponent's favot.

That's FOUR votes, folks.  This is why EVERY vote from every voter counts.

Today, the Winnebago County Republican Party requested I be their official observer at a legally required test of election tabulating machines that were used in the April 9th general election.  

The county clerk's office selected 6 precincts out of the county to be "retabulated" as a test of the equipment.  This test used the same tabulator was was used the night of the election to re-tabulart the test precincts and compare the results.

Every vote counts!  

Well, that was especially true in this year's race for Harlem Township Supervisor.  The race -- so far -- is down to FIVE votes.  The race is, now, hinged on a small number of absentee ballots that have yet to be counted. 

Absentee ballot counts won't be available, officially, until April 23.  So we wait.

http://www.rrstar.com/updates/x987006736/Absentee-ballots-could-determine-Harlem-Township-race

In today's society we are constantly bombarded with political rhetoric demanding that we, conservatives, be more "open minded, tolerant, and considerate of the views of other people."  In fact one author I read went so far as to state, "A contagious culture of closed-mindedness threatens to suffocate our progress as a society.”

Legislation increasing local government transparency was chosen by state Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, this week to be his first bill passed in the Illinois House.

The election night results show me down my a total of five votes.  However, there were about 280 absentee ballots of which only some have been counted. The election authority has 14 days to count all the absentee ballots. I won't know any more until those numbers are tallied.

April 9^th ELECTION DAY: