Final votes in for McHenry County local elections. Find out which seats flipped, and if any write-ins won

With the final mail-in and write-in vote now tallied, the outcome of the McHenry County local elections has become clearer, and it was not a good outcome for one particular candidate.

Nunda Township Clerk Joni Smith, who was leading by 135 votes after the election night count on April 1, has fallen behind her challenger, Kyle Bussenger. Just 15 votes now separate the ballot rivals.

It was another blow to the Nunda Township incumbents, with Highway Commissioner Mike Lesperance losing his reelection bid to township Trustee Rob Parrish and McHenry County Board member Mike Shorten ousting incumbent Supervisor Leda Drain. Smith could not immediately be reached for comment.

For Nunda Township Board, Joe Bratanick also pulled ahead of Justin Franzke for the final of four seats up for election, in results that remain unofficial until the April 22 canvass.

Although Shorten beat Drain the Republican primary, he backed a slate of candidates who ran as independents against GOP such as Lesperance. The independent candidates fared well, with Bratanick, Bob Murray and Sheila Halasz all apparently nabbing seats on the board and Republican incumbents Jordan Frank and Mike Rogulic falling short in reelection bids. Only one Republican incumbent, Karen Tynis, held onto her seat.

Elsewhere in the county, former McHenry County Board member Lou Ness will not be joining the Woodstock City Council.

Ness ran as a write-in candidate for the council following an unsuccessful reelection bid for the County Board last fall. Ness would have needed almost 1,000 votes to win election in Woodstock but only got 617, according to unofficial write-in results from the April 1 election that were reported Tuesday. Ness picked up the most votes by far of any write-in candidate in the county but not enough to win a council seat.

Incumbents Tom Nierman and Bob Seegers are slated to stay on the council, and challenger Gregory Hanson is expected to join, though results remain unofficial until the April 22 canvassing. Council member Gordie Tebo decided not to run for reelection, and seven people ran for three seats.

Seegers was leading all seven candidates in vote totals heading into Tuesday, which didn’t change after the last of the mail-in votes and the write-in votes were reported. Seegers was also the only candidate who got more than 1,000 votes, finishing with 1,012. Nierman finished second with 991 and Hanson got the third seat with 985.

None of the write-in candidates in McHenry County came close to winning in the April 1 election, and several people who had tight leads on election night expanded those leads after the last mail-in ballots were counted.

Harvard School District 50 president Melinda Shafer, who was booted from the ballot last December, got 68 votes as a write-in, coming in well short of the hundreds of votes needed to stay on the school board. Board member Caren MacKenzie won reelection, as did candidates Renee Gonzalez, Rubi Vega and William “Willie” Perez. Board member Diana Bird lost her bid for reelection.

Harvard Mayor Michael Kelly fended off a write-in challenge from Paul Herely to win reelection. Kelly has 613 votes while Herely has 292 write-in votes. Kristina Crain filed as a write-in candidate for Harvard city clerk, and Scott S. Logan appeared on the ballot. Logan has 809 votes to Crain’s 61, according to unofficial results.

In McHenry, Bobbi Baehne will be joining the City Council after Alderman Victor “Vic” Santi declined to run for reelection. Baehne, whom Santi supported, led by 20 votes over Mark Seaquist heading into Tuesday. After the last batch of mail-in votes came in, Baehne’s lead expanded to 38 votes. Baehne has 302 votes to Seaquist’s 264.

Alderman Frank McClatchey in Ward 3 is likely to be leaving the City Council. Challenger Stephen Doherty led by 44 votes heading into Tuesday, but was ahead 53 votes, 318 to 265, after the last of the mail-in ballots came in.

While most McHenry County mayors who ran for reelection kept their seats, McCullom Lake Village President Marilyn Shepit is expected to lose reelection to challenger Terry Counley. Counley has 95 votes and Shepit 74 as of Tuesday’s vote total update. Hebron Village President Robert Shelton also continues to trail far behind presumptive winner Steven Morris.

Mail-in ballots that were postmarked by April 1 but arrived to the clerk’s office by Tuesday were counted. While Tuesday’s update marked the final batch of votes to be counted, the election results will not be official until the canvass, which is scheduled for the afternoon of April 22.