Additional ballot counting reported Tuesday swings one of three tight McHenry County Board races

Democrat Tanya Jindrich took the lead over Republican Mike Shorten for the second of two McHenry County Board seats representing District 3 when additional ballots were counted and added to unofficial results Tuesday.

The race was the only one to flip locally after the McHenry County Clerk's Office updated its totals with more mail-in ballots Tuesday afternoon.

County Clerk Joe Tirio said 6,023 ballots were added to the latest countywide count Tuesday evening, and no more counting would be reported until Nov. 17, the last day the clerk can receive mail-in ballots that had been postmarked by Nov. 3, when polls closed.

There were still 642 mail-in ballots that had been returned countywide and not yet counted after Tuesday's update, with 14,967 mail-in ballots requested but not yet received by election officials.

As long as ballots were postmarked by Election Day and received by Nov. 17, they will be counted. There also remained 1,211 provisional ballots from across the county that could be added to totals on Nov. 17.

That means the leaders in some of McHenry County's closer races could change once again.

In District 3 for the McHenry County Board, Jindrich had been trailing Shorten by 188 votes as of Monday, but held a lead of 100 votes after Tuesday's tally.

"I’m cautiously optimistic," Jindrich said in an interview. "This is looking much better than it did. I’m very, very excited, but I understand the process has to play out."

Republican Joe Gottemoller maintained his steady lead with 37.1% of the vote in the District 3 County Board race, while Jindrich had 31.6%, enough to notch a seat if the lead holds steady. Shorten had 31.3%.

In the race for the McHenry County chairman job, Republican newcomer Mike Buehler, of Crystal Lake, still was leading with 52.9% of the vote over Marengo Democrat's Jack D. Franks’ 47.1%. Before the ballots were updated, Buehler had 53% of the vote.

As of Tuesday, Buehler had 83,691 votes while Franks trailed behind at 74,596.

In the other countywide races, the Republican incumbents maintained their leads with McHenry County Circuit Court Clerk Katherine M. Keefe with 59.3% of the vote over Democratic challenger Renee M. Overlee and McHenry County Auditor Shannon L. Teresi,with 74.0% of the vote over Libertarian James "Jim" Young, Libertarian: 36,973 (26.0%)

McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally ran unopposed.

The McHenry County Coroner's Office has no incumbent and in that race, Republican Michael R. Rein also kept his lead with 70.3% of the vote over Libertarian Kelly Liebmann.

In the other races for McHenry County Board, the leads on election night have also held.

In the three-way race for a seat representing southeastern District 1 on the McHenry County Board, Democrat Theresa Meshes, retained her slim lead over Republican Yvonne Barnes. Meshes, on Tuesday, had 32.59% of the vote, while Barnes had 32.16%.

However, the updated ballots strengthened newcomer Meshes’ lead over Barnes slightly, putting her 168 votes above Barnes.

Incumbent Tom Wilbeck, R-Barrington Hills, is leading over both of them. His 13,872 votes gives him 35.26% of the vote.

Democrat Jessica Phillips maintained her lead in the County Board race for a District 2 County Board seat with 35.3% of the vote, while Republican Jeffrey T. Thorsen had 33.9% to maintain a lead over Republican John Reinert who had 30.8% in the race for the district's second seat.