Today is the final day in which mail-in votes received after November 4 can be counted in Illinois. The only statewide race here in Illinois where this matters is the too-close-to-call race for Illinois Treasurer.
As of 2:10 P.M. CST, Republican candidate Tom Cross led Democratic candidate Mike Frerichs by 99 votes out of 3,490,890 total votes counted at that point, but more votes have come in since then.
Scott Kennedy of Illinois Election Data has provided a detailed, frequently updated page of the results of the Frerichs/Cross race and a full list of post-November 4 changes in the results.
I'll be rebroadcasting Illinois Election Data's updates on here until midnight tonight below the orange divider.
12:13 PM PT: As of 2:10 P.M., no changes in the results, although Adams, Bond, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Clark, Clinton, Coles, DeWitt, Fayette, Greene, Hancock, Jasper, Livingston, Macon, Macoupin, Marshall, Mason, Morgan, Piatt, Pike, Pope, Randolph, Richland, Shelby, Tazewell, rural Vermilion, Wabash, Wayne, and City of Rockford election authorities have reported final results.
12:15 PM PT: The City of Chicago and suburban Cook County have not yet reported final results.
12:23 PM PT: The statewide margin as a percentage, rounded to four decimal places, is 0.0028%
12:25 PM PT: LEAD CHANGE: Democratic candidate Mike Frerichs is now leading by 136 votes statewide after Frerichs netted 235 votes in the City of Aurora.
12:31 PM PT: Mike Frerichs is leading statewide by 0.0039%, rounded to four decimal places.
12:51 PM PT: Mike Frerichs now leads by 125 votes statewide, as Tom Cross netted 11 votes out of Crawford County.
12:52 PM PT: Frerichs leads statewide by 0.0036%, rounded to four decimal places.
12:58 PM PT: Frerichs margin is down to 121 votes, as Cross netted 4 votes in Edgar County. Statewide margin is 0.0035% in favor of Frerichs.
1:01 PM PT: Illinois Election Data is reporting via Twitter that Mike Frerichs netted two votes out of Fulton County, although they haven't updated their tracker yet.
1:02 PM PT: Frerichs nets 376 votes out of Will County (Tom Cross's home county), giving Frerichs a 497 vote lead statewide (0.0142%)
1:04 PM PT: Fulton County late votes still not added to Illinois Election Data tracker yet, Frerichs has 499 vote lead out of 3,494,491 total votes (0.0143% margin) with Fulton County votes included.
1:06 PM PT: Possible typo with Will County results, IL Election Data is double-checking numbers.
1:13 PM PT: Just compared IL Election Data new numbers for Will County with numbers on Will County Clerk's website, and they do match, so any typo would be Will County's fault.
1:20 PM PT: Frerichs +8 out of City of Galesburg, giving Frerichs a 505 vote (0.0145%) lead statewide.
1:24 PM PT: Additionally, Frerichs reportedly gained 12 votes out of Sangamon County, although Illinois Election Data has not yet added those votes to their tracker, nor have they added the Fulton County late votes mentioned upthread yet.
1:27 PM PT: Cross +15 in Montgomery County, Frerichs +490 (0.0140%) statewide.
1:27 PM PT: Cross +15 in Montgomery County, Frerichs +490 (0.0140%) statewide.
1:30 PM PT: Frerichs nets 2 in Washington County, Frerichs +492 (0.0141%) statewide.
1:31 PM PT: Scott Kennedy of Illinois Election Data will step away until 4:15 P.M. CST or so, so I'll take a break and come back then to continue the liveblog.
2:11 PM PT: Election authorities not yet officially published final results: Alexander, Boone, Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Carroll, Clay, suburban Cook, Chicago city, Cumberland, DeKalb, Douglas, DuPage, Edwards, Effingham, Ford, Franklin, Fulton, Gallatin, Grundy, Hamilton, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Jackson, Jefferson, Jersey, JoDaviess, Johnson, suburban Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, rural Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Lawrence, Lee, Logan, Madison, Marion, McDonough, McHenry, rural McLean, Bloomington city, Menard, Mercer, Monroe, Moultrie, Ogle, rural Peoria, Peoria city, Perry, Pulaski, Putnam, Rock Island, Saline, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, suburban St. Clair, East St. Louis city, Stark, Stephenson, Danville city, Warren, White, Whiteside, Williamson, rural Winnebago, Woodford. Of those, Fulton and Sangamon have results not yet published, Frerichs has unofficially netted 14 votes combined out of those two counties, unofficially giving Frerichs a 506 vote lead.
Additionally, Scott Kennedy of Illinois Election Data has returned, so the liveblog is back on.
2:21 PM PT: Suburban Kane County results are final, but no changes from yesterday's update.
2:23 PM PT: Cross +6 out of rural Peoria County, Frerichs officially +486 (0.0139%) statewide.
2:26 PM PT: Suburban Cook County results forthcoming, per Cook County Clerk David Orr via Twitter.
2:32 PM PT: Current Suburban Cook County results: Frerichs 353,055, Cross 281,813, Skopek 24,154. Update not yet published.
2:38 PM PT: Per Illinois Election Data Twitter page, Cross has netted 48 votes in DuPage County, although this has not been officially published yet.
2:43 PM PT: Cross nets 212 votes out of rural Winnebago County, Frerichs leads statewide by 274 votes (0.0078%).
2:47 PM PT: Officially published: Cross +48 in DuPage County, Statewide margin, which also factors in rural Winnebago update, is Frerichs +274 (0.0078%).
2:49 PM PT: CORRECTION: Frerichs leads statewide by 226 votes (0.0065%).
2:56 PM PT: Officially published: Sangamon County +12 for Frerichs, Frerichs +238 (0.0068%) statewide.
2:59 PM PT: We're only 13 votes shy of 3,500,000 total votes being counted in this election.
3:05 PM PT: OVER 3.5 MILLION TOTAL VOTES COUNTED: Frerichs nets 16 in Franklin County, Frerichs +254 (0.0073%) statewide. 3,500,024 total votes have been cast.
3:08 PM PT: Cross +10 in Jefferson County, Frerichs +244 (0.0070%) statewide.
3:12 PM PT: Results currenty coming in out of Lake County, Illinois Election Data calls them "unexpected"
3:15 PM PT: Frerichs nets 472 in Lake County, Frerichs +716 (0.0204%) statewide.
3:17 PM PT: Cross doing very poorly in suburban areas in late vote tallies, with Will (Cross's home county) and Lake giving their late votes to Frerichs by a few hundred votes apiece. Unless Cross nets thousands of votes out of places like suburban Cook County, Danville, Bloomington, Peoria, rural McLean County, Rock Island County, etc., Frerichs is likely going to win.
3:18 PM PT: Suburban Cook County update forthcoming in a minute or two.
3:19 PM PT: Frerichs nets 2,263 votes in suburban Cook County, Frerichs leads by 2,979 votes (0.0848%) statewide.
3:26 PM PT: Unless Cross nets thousands of votes out of places like Madison County, suburban St. Clair County, and McHenry County, it appears as if Frerichs is likely going to win. I won't project a winner because of the likely lawsuits and/or recounts.
3:28 PM PT: Frerichs nets 1 in Johnson County, Frerichs now leads by 2,980 (0.0849%) statewide.
3:29 PM PT: Cross nets 1 in Scott County, statewide margin back down to 2,979 in favor of Frerichs (0.0848%).
3:38 PM PT: Frerichs nets 132 votes out of suburban St. Clair County, Frerichs +3,111 (0.0886%) statewide.
3:46 PM PT: Cross +3 in LaSalle County, Frerichs +3,108 (0.0885%) statewide.
3:53 PM PT: Frerichs +16 in McDonough County, Frerichs +3,124 (0.0889%) statewide.
3:56 PM PT: Cross +39 in rural McLean County, Frerichs still leads by 3,085 (0.0878%) statewide.
4:03 PM PT: Frerichs nets 29 in City of Bloomington, Frerichs +3,114 (0.0886%) statewide.
4:04 PM PT: Frerichs nets 3 votes in Monroe County, Frerichs now leads by 3,117 votes (0.0887%) statewide.
4:05 PM PT: Just by eyeballing the Illinois Election Data tracker, about half of the election authorities not yet reporting final results don't have websites featuring updated election results.
4:08 PM PT: Frerichs nets 143 votes out of City of Peoria, Frerichs now leads by 3,260 votes (0.0928%) statewide.
4:13 PM PT: Cross gained 1 vote in White County, Frerichs's lead is now 3,259 votes.
4:19 PM PT: Statement from Mike Frerichs campaign via Facebook:
"With votes pouring in from all over the state - and not a single provisional ballot yet counted in Chicago - we have a 3,000 vote lead.
Thank you to Will county, Aurora, Lake County, DuPage County, Rockford, St. Clair County and suburbs of Winnetka, Wilmette, Downers Grove and Naperville for your outstanding support!"
4:25 PM PT: Although Illinois Election Data has not confirmed this, the Kankakee Daily Journal is reporting that Kankakee County is apparently finished counting votes, but Grundy County is not.
4:32 PM PT: The only election authorities with 20,000+ votes currently counted in the treasurer's race that are not finished counting according to Illinois Election Data are Chicago city, DeKalb, Kankakee, Kendall, Madison, McHenry, and Rock Island.
4:42 PM PT: 630 P.M. CST update from Scott Kennedy of Illinois Election Data:
"Here’s where things stand right now. I have checked every publicly available source of election results since 5pm. As of this writing Frerichs has a lead of 3,259 votes but 52 of the state’s 110 election authorities have not yet published what is clearly a final update. You can see which counties updated here.
The City of Chicago still has not updated, which is expected to produce a notable margin for Frerichs. The Cook County suburbs did make an update of 8,314 votes and Frerichs net gain there was 2,263 votes.
The most surprising news of the day came in the collar counties. In the 5 traditional collar counties overall Cross beat Frerichs 57%-38%. I expected that the updates in the 5 collar counties would give Cross the net gains he would need to keep this race close. That was not the case.
We haven’t had a public update in McHenry County since 11/5 and did not get one so far today. DuPage had a large public update on 11/5 as well, both producing large margins for Cross. However in today’s updates it was Frerichs who came out with a net gain in Lake and Will (472 and 376 respectively) while Cross’ net gain today in DuPage was only 48 votes. The Kane County part outside of Aurora updated last night Cross gained 215 votes while the Aurora election authority update today gave a net gain to Frerichs of 235 votes.
In the overall statewide vote the 5 collar counties made up 25% of the vote in this race, while the Cook County suburbs made up 19% of the total vote. Cross needed gains in the collar counties to blunt the gains by Frerichs in Cook County and what is expected in Chicago. Unless McHenry comes in with a very large update, that didn’t happen.
This race has had many surprising developments. Now Tom Cross is going to need to find votes in surprising places to make up the current deficit."
4:54 PM PT: No new updates since 6:15 P.M. or so CST. Approaching 40 minutes since last update.
5:00 PM PT: It's 7:00 P.M. CST, and no new updates in the past 45 minutes.
5:10 PM PT: Getting close to a full hour since the last update in the vote totals.
5:17 PM PT: Even though final vote counts are due today, many election authorities may wait until sometime tomorrow to officially publish final results.
5:22 PM PT: Final results in Fulton County have not yet published, if an earlier report is correct, Frerichs will net 2 votes from there once results from there are published.
5:34 PM PT: Scott Kennedy of Illinois Election Data says that he is keeping his eye on the City of Chicago's elections website and intends to check all others that haven't reported final votes yet once more tonight, so this liveblog is going to be infrequently updated from now to midnight.
5:53 PM PT: Getting close to 8 P.M., and no updates within the hour.
6:15 PM PT: Here are the current vote totals, per Illinois Election Data Tracker:
Mike Frerichs (Democratic): 1,685,576 (47.9691%)
Tom Cross (Republican): 1,682,317 (47.8763%)
Matthew Skopek (Libertarian): 145,989 (4.1546%)
Total votes: 3,513,882
Frerichs leads by 3,529 votes
6:43 PM PT: Getting close to 8:45 P.M. No new updates at this time.
7:03 PM PT: City of Chicago gives Frerichs a net gain of 6,217 votes, giving Frerichs a statewide margin of 9,476 votes (0.2689%).
7:04 PM PT: Cross has reportedly netted 122 votes out of McHenry County, new results there not yet published, though.
7:08 PM PT: CORRECTION: Cross reportedly netted 128 votes out of McHenry County, although final results from there not yet published.
7:34 PM PT: Cross +37 out of Marion County, Frerichs lead down to 9,439 (0.2679%).
7:44 PM PT: Scott Kennedy of Illinois Election Data has finished looking for new updates, so I'll sign off. Currently, Democratic candidate Mike Frerichs is leading Republican candidate Tom Cross by 9,439 votes, or 0.2679%. I will now end the liveblog 2 hours and 15 minutes earlier than anticipated.
Good night, everybody!