Election Results: Lake County Board, Coroner, State's Attorney

LAKE COUNTY, IL — Unofficial election results from Lake County indicate incumbent Republicans in countywide office could be in for close races with their challengers, while the two Democratic countywide officeholders led by five-digit margins.

A referendum to eliminate the Lake County Recorder of Deeds Office had earned the most votes of anything on the ballot. Voters favored it by a 2-1 margin, and its passage appeared assured, as of Wednesday morning.

The preliminary vote count includes votes cast early and on Election Day, but no provisional and late arriving votes are not included. It includes votes from nearly 53 percent of registered voters in the county, according to the Lake County Clerk's Office.

There were about 59,000 mail-in ballots that were requested by voters but yet to be returned as of Monday. More mail-in ballots will be added to the tally after 5 p.m. Nov. 10, according to the clerk's office.

Since Illinois law requires late arriving mail-in ballots to be accepted through Nov. 17, it may take two weeks to know the exact number of Lake County voters who took part in the election.

Of the four countywide jobs to fill, the campaign to become the county's top prosecutor has been among the most contentious. Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim, a Gurnee Republican, is seeking to fend off a challenge from criminal defense attorney Eric Rinehart, a Highwood Democrat, to secure a third term in office.

The unofficial results showed Nerheim leading by fewer than 5,000 votes out of the first 250,000 votes counted.

During the campaign, Nerheim touted successes creating specialized units, establishing an independent case review panel and co-founding a multi-agency initiative to prevent opioid addiction and abuse. He was endorsed by the editorial boards of the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald, as well as United Hellenic Voters of America and the Lake County Farm Bureau. He has a law degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

His challenger, Rinehart, promised to make the criminal law system fair to underserved communities while also dedicating more resources to prosecuting serious violent felonies. After starting his career with two years at a Chicago civil law firm, he spent six years as a public defender in Lake County before starting his own firm in 2009. Rinehart was endorsed by the political action organization spun out of Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, other progressive political action committees and local unions. He has a law degree from the University of Chicago.

The race to become Lake County Coroner was even closer, according to the unofficial results.
First-term incumbent Howard Cooper, a Wadsworth Republican and dentist with experience as a forensic odontologist, faced Green Oaks Democrat Jennifer Banek, a nurse anesthesiologist and captain in the Army reserves who also serves as a library trustee. Both candidates' campaigns focused more on how they would prevent people from dying than how they would improve the office's death investigations in the future.

Banek led Cooper by fewer than 1,000 votes in the preliminary, unofficial results.

Both candidates in the recorder's race favored the consolidation of the office. Mary Ellen Vanderventer, a Waukegan Democrat who was first elected in 1996, had the most support of any countywide candidates for office in the early results. The incumbent led Deerfield Republican Emilia Czyszczon by a 56-43 margin, with more than 33,000 votes separating them in the preliminary count.

Vanderventer is poised to win a seventh term as recorder after asking the Lake County Board to place the question eliminating the office on the ballot. She touted her prior experience in the clerk's office as preparation for merging the two.

The referendum question asks voters: "Shall the office of the Recorder of Lake County be eliminated on December 1, 2022, by merging that office's duties and responsibilities into the office of the County Clerk of Lake County?" According to Lake County board members, passage of the referendum will save taxpayers, at least, the recorder's annual base salary of $127,824.

The other countywide race on the ballot is the one for Lake County circuit court clerk, where incumbent Democrat Erin Cartwright Weinstein of Gurnee held a 16,000 vote lead over Gloria Schmidt Rodriguez, a Waukegan Republican.

In her campaign for a second term in office, Weinstein said she expected a multi-year, multi-agency record management system upgrade to be complete next year, and her office has begun digitizing its records. Rodriguez, an attorney, said she ran for the office to help marginalized communities gain equal access to justice, improve working conditions in the office and improve electronic access to court files.

RELATED: It Could Be Weeks Until Illinois Knows Election Results

A deluge of mail-in votes cast this election amid the coronavirus pandemic — many of which have yet to be counted — added to the unprecedented nature of the 2020 general election. Illinois officials have up to two weeks post-election to count all provisional votes.

Note: Provisional and late-arriving mail ballots are all not included in the preliminary counts, which was updated at about 1:30 a.. Wednesday. According to the Lake County Clerk's Office, additional vote by mail ballots will be added after 5 p.m. Nov. 10, with late arriving and provisional votes tallies added Nov. 17.

Fewer than 10 points separated the candidates in three of the eight races for the 21-member Lake County Board in preliminary results. Two years ago, the Democratic Party narrowly won its first majority on the board in its history.

According to the unofficial results, incumbent Linda Pederson, an Antioch Republican, was on her way to comfortably fending off a challenge from Lake Villa Democrat Chase Andrew Thomas in District 1. In District 2, incumbent Diane Hewitt, a Zion Democrat, looked to have done the same to Zion Republican Paul Christensen. Both incumbents led by more than 30 points.

District 4 saw incumbent Brent Paxton, a Zion Republican, face a challenge from Zion Democrat Gina Roberts. And in District 7, incumbent Steve Carlson, a Grandwood Park Republican, faced Lake Villa Democrat Carissa Casbon. Both races were neck-and-neck early Wednesday, with fewer than 2,000 votes between the candidates in both races, although Roberts and Casbon held on to slim leads.

In District 12, just a few hundred votes separated incumbent Lake Forest Republican Mike Rummel from challenger Paras Parekh of Highland Park.

Incumbent Sandy Hart, the Lake Bluff Democrat who became the county's first Democratic county board chair following the 2018 election, was challenged by Lauren Fleming of Gurnee in District 13. She had a lead of about 1,000 votes and 11 percentage points Wednesday.

While in District 16, Round Lake Beach Democrat Terry Wilke, the incumbent, maintained a 13-point lead over Round Lake Republican John Frazier, who trailed by about 1,000 votes.