Pawlik concedes Geneva mayoral win to Burns

As mail-in ballots are waning to the last day Tuesday, April 15, challenger Karsten Pawlik said he will concede the mayoral race to incumbent Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns.

Burns confirmed that Pawlik left him a voicemail message conceeding.

Burns is 176 votes up from challenger Karsten Pawlik, 3,099 to 2,9,23 votes, in results that are still unofficial, but Pawlik said he didn’t think enough mail-in ballots would arrive to make any difference.

If Burns’ lead is certified, he will be elected to a seventh term.

And in the contested Ward Five race between newcomers Patrice Bertheau and Jeff Palmquist, the margin is even slimmer, with Palmquist leading by 26 votes, 620 to 594. A third candidate in the 5th Ward, Kim Edwards, had 158 votes, according to unofficial results.

In the contested Third Ward, Larry Furnish, with 498 votes, was far ahead of Lee Eysterlid’s 274 and Kevin Ziegler’s 109, in unofficial results.

Kane County Clerk John Cunningham said he didn’t expect vote totals to change between today and after the last of the mail-in ballots arrive by 1 p.m. Tuesday.

“The chance of changing is unlikely,” Cunningham said. “But most people don’t want to lose hope...The chances that those who are not winning will be changed are very slight.”

The clerk’s office counts the mail-in ballots that arrive until April 15, but they must be postmarked on election day, April 1.

Cunningham said they’ve received 10-20 mail-in ballots that were postmarked too late to be counted.

The clerk’s office will begin canvassing the votes after the mail arrives Tuesday afternoon, and then will mail out notices of the results, Cunningham said.

“The fat lady hasn’t sung yet,” Cunningham said. “She has laryngitis.”

Palmquist said he would hold off commenting until results are final.

“Since the margin is so slim, I’m certainly respecting that process and holding off until there are official results,” Palmquist said. “I’ll wait until certification to make a more overt public statement about the election.”

But Palmquist praised Geneva voters for turning out in the consolidated election, which historically has a low turnout.

“I do want to give kudos to Geneva voters. There was an almost 44% turnout in the Fifth Ward. In any precinct, any ballot measure, any race – that was the highest turnout across the entire county,” Palmquist said. “That’s huge for a local election without any high profile candidates.”

In the Fifth Ward alone, 1,241 mail-in ballots were issued and 1,091 were returned, with only 150 still out, according to Monday’s tally from the Clerk’s Office.

For the entire city of Geneva, 4,645 mail-in ballots were issued, 3,908 were returned and 737 are still out, records show.

Bertheau agreed that the turnout was good – but added it could have been better.

“It was good to see a higher turnout,” Bertheau said. “I would have liked to see an 80% or 90% turnout.”

Even though she may lose by a close margin, Bertheau said she would not seek a discovery recount.