As McHenry County continues to digest the still-unofficial results of Tuesday’s primary election, here are some oddities that might have flown under the radar.

Buehler wins with 11 write-in votes

McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler won his reelection as the Republican Precinct 10 Committeeperson for Grafton Township with just under a dozen write-in votes.

“I talked to my neighbors, and that’s about it,” he said as for how he campaigned.

Buehler’s name did not appear on the ballot as a because he missed the paperwork deadline. He said his conflicting schedules with his job and being a County Board chair prevented him from getting the signatures submitted in time.

Buehler won another term for that other elected office he holds – county board chairman – in 2024.

School board meeting held on election day despite new state ban

Starting at the beginning of this year, the Open Meetings Act was updated by legislative action to prohibit any governmental body from holding a public meeting on an election day.

With Tuesday being the primary election, many villages, school boards and park districts moved their regularly scheduled meetings to either the day before or after the elections.

For example, the Cary Village Board moved its meeting to Monday.

“The reason that it’s a special board meeting is that we are no longer able to have public meetings on election days,” Mayor Mark Kownick said at the meeting. “So we just moved it up a day because tomorrow is an election day.”

Crystal Lake-based Community High School District 155 seemed to have missed the memo. A regular Board of Education meeting was held Tuesday evening.

District 155 spokesperson Shannon Podzimek said the district was not previously aware of the change, and self-reported to the Public Access Bureau the next day.

“We are currently evaluating the circumstances surrounding the scheduling of that meeting and consulting with legal counsel to ensure full compliance with the Open Meetings Act,” district officials wrote in a letter to the PAC.

The board plans to hold a special meeting on April 2 to revote on action items made during Tuesday’s meeting, Podzimek said.

“The board is committed to transparency and adherence to all applicable legal requirements,” Podzimek said.

The Illinois Attorney General’s Office doesn’t have specific penalties laid out for this violation, but general Open Meeting Act violations could come with criminal and civil consequences. Being a Class C misdemeanor, a violation could be punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Several civil actions could also be taken in lawsuits, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

In 2024, before the new law went into effect, the Crystal Lake City Council voted to raise the local sales tax on the same day that voters in McHenry County were faced with – and approved – a countywide sales tax increase to fund mental health services. The combined increases made the city’s sales tax the highest in the county.

McHenry County favors for Kat Abughazaleh for Congress

Though Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss is the presumptive winner of Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District seat, McHenry County voters favored a different Democrat.

Kat Abughazaleh is leading McHenry County’s vote at 30%. Trailing behind by 382 votes in second is Biss at 26%.

Abughazaleh built a well-funded, grass-roots campaign without significant help from special interest groups or notable Illinois politicians.

Biss and Abughazaleh were among the demonstrators who protested outside the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement facility in Broadview; Abughazaleh and five other demonstrators were indicted on federal charges following one protest. Charges have since been dropped against two defendants, but Abughazaleh’s remain.

The district – whose longtime representative in Congress, Jan Schakowsky, announced her retirement – runs from the far north side of Chicago all the way northwest to Crystal Lake, though a relatively small portion of it is in McHenry County.

On the Republican side, McHenry County lines up with the overall voters, placing John Elleson in the lead. So far, Elleson has 50% of McHenry County votes.

State treasurer write-in

Republican Max Solomon took a risky approach to becoming a politician by running as a write-in for the state treasurer seat.

It may have paid off in McHenry County, where more than 2,200 write-in votes were cast in the GOP primary for state treasurer.

According to Capitol News Illinois, Solomon most recently ran for governor in 2024 among other unsuccessful attempts for public office over the years.

To be the nominee, Solomon would have to get 5,000 votes. The results are still unknown as of Thursday because the process for counting write-in candidates takes longer than that for traditional candidates.

Another Republican, Max Rice, is also contesting for the position as a write-in, making it unclear which tallied write-in votes went to whom.

Solomon already declared victory on his social media pages.

Over 2,200 write-in votes were cast in McHenry County for the Republican nomination seat, according to unofficial results.

On the Democratic side, incumbent Michael Frerichs, first elected to the seat in 2014, is seeking another term.

Election judge dies on election night

Tragedy struck on election night when a longtime election judge, Petter Culver, died following a medical emergency after working that day at a polling place in McCullom Lake.

McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio, who runs elections in the county, issued a moving statement on Culver’s death, saying in part: “Petter gave years of faithful service to the Democratic Party and the democratic process in McHenry County. He showed up, because he understood something that too many take for granted: freedom is not self-sustaining. It requires tending. It requires people willing to do the hard, unglamorous work of making democracy real, not just in theory, but in practice, one voter at a time.”