UPDATE – Change in County Board Results from Election Night Shows Democratic Women Picking Up Three Seats, Dems Now Have 1/3 of County Board

My mind was addled last night when I wrote the story below. The headline was only half correct. Three Democratic women did win, but on Election Night only two were ahead in the results. The article has been changed to reflect the mistake.

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Although 6,023 more votes were in play when McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio released results of ballots received after Election Day, there was one change in the winners.

Election Day results showed two Republicans winning in District 3–Joe Gottemoller and Mike Shorten.

Adding the results of the counting of 6,023 ballots received after Election Day and the provisional ballots shows that Shorten’s lead evaporated, that Democrat Tanya Jindrich emerged victorious.

Democratic women picked up seats in Districts 1, 2 and 3.

That means Democrats will occupy one-third of the seats on the McHenry County Board.

That means representation is split evenly between Republican and Democrats in those districts.

In District 1, Theresa Meshes is edging out incumbent Republican Yvonne Barnes by 37 votes.

In District 1, Tom Wilbeck and Theresa Meshes won.

In District 2, Democrat Jessica Phillips ran first, 536 votes ahead of incumbent Republican Jeff Thorsen. Incumbent John Reinert was last, 1,142 behind Thorsen.

Jessica Phillips and Jeff Thorsen won in District 2.

In District 3, GOP challenger Mike Shorten came up 100 votes short.

Leading was former McHenry County Board Chairman Joe Gottmoller. He led Democrat Tanya Jindrich 2,184 votes.

Joe Gottemoller and Tanya Jindrich won in District 3.

There was no Democratic Party opposition in District 4.

Republican appointed incumbent Stephen Doherty outpolled elected incumbent Kay Bates by 900 votes.

Stephen Doherty and Kay Bates won in District 4.

In District 5, Republican incumbent Mike Skala and Democrat Paula Yensen won re-election.

Skala ran first, 1,189 ahead of Yensen.

Yensen was 2,052 ahead of Republican Damon Hamon Hill. Hill led Democrat Lynn Gray by 242 votes.

Paula Yensen and Michael Skala won re-election.

In District 6, incumbent Republican Jim Kearns and running mate Tracie Von Bergan emerged victorious.

Kearns ran first with 14,572 votes, Von Bergen garnered 13,050.

The two Democrats got the following votes:

  • Nancy Glissman – 10,124
  • Larry Spaeth – 7,820
James Kearns and Tracie Von Bergen won in District 6.

It is interesting how many more people voted in District 6 than the other districts:

  • District 1 – 38,127 votes cast
  • District 2 – 36,897 votes cast
  • District 3 – 39,889 votes cast
  • District 4 – 32,990 votes cast
  • District 5 – 42,515 votes cast
  • District 6 – 45,556 votes cast

One can explain the lower vote total in District 3 because of the lack of competiton.

Many people skip contests when their votes are irrelevant.


Comments

UPDATE – Change in County Board Results from Election Night Shows Democratic Women Picking Up Three Seats, Dems Now Have 1/3 of County Board — 17 Comments

  1. ** No Change in County Board Results from Election Night**

    Wasn’t Tanya Jindrich losing by 188 votes at end of last Tuesday?

  2. John Reinert deserves to lose.

    His cheating caught up with him.

  3. I don’t know how many people voted in Sun City Huntley in District 6, but I do know that we gave about 95% of the people there a copy of the Republican newspaper.

    I hope we continue to print that paper every election cycle.

  4. Not a huge loss.

    Republicans foiled the Democrats’ plan here in McHenry County.

    Franks lost and he was crucial in redrawing the districts and shrinking the board.

    Now that Buehler is going to be chairman, it means Franks can’t assemble some ad hoc committee with Dems and his favorite RINOs.

    I think that was their plan — not to get a majority but to increase their power and set themselves up nice for 2022.

    This was a very good year for Republicans in McHenry County.

    What’s going to happen to Ness’s seat?

    When does she vacate the county board seat? When would the appointment happen?

    Maybe Buehler could appoint a “Democrat?”

  5. Correcting, good question about Ness seat.

    Her term as state representative begins on January 13, and Franks’ term as county board chairman, whether he concedes or not, ends on November 30.

    By law, a vacancy on county board is filled by the chairman with advice and consent of the board. Also by law, since Ness was elected as a Democrat, the seat must be filled by a Democrat for the remainder of the unexpired term. There is no special election in 2021 to fill a county board seat.

    But the county board appointment process does not start until Ness formally resigns from her board seat, which to date, she has not done.

    Conceivably, Ness could serve to January 13 on the county board by making her resignation effective January 13.

    So first step is for Ness to resign from county board. If she does before November 30, she wants Franks to fill the seat. If she waits, it’ll be Buehler making the appointment of a Democrat.

    No matter who makes the appointment, there has to be 13 board members who’ll vote for it.

  6. How about waiting til 2022 to fill Ness’s seat. Pull a Jacko! Over the past 10 years Del Webb and a precinct west of Rt. 47 in Huntley have developed a lot. I don’t know the Grafton Precinct but I believe it had almost 2000 votes.

  7. Buehler must appoint a Democrat.

    That is state law.

    Guess he could disobey state law the way Franks did when left the Coroner’s office open for almost two years.

  8. Austin has a contract.

    Trust me, he’s glad to get rid of Franks!

    Yvonne Barnes losing by 37 votes is very disheartening.

    She is a great board member and representative.

  9. Not sure anything can be done about Austin.

    Ken K. set up a very strong contract for Austin.

    Extremely difficult to get rid of.

    If I am wrong, the someone please correct me.

  10. Reinert is nothing but a loser. Good for u. Mike shorty Shorten is a joke also. Reinert u deserved to lose. U had your eggs in the wrong basket.

  11. Reinert was a pathetic swamp creature. Glad it’s (not he) is gone! Somehow he went wrong along the way. Very wrong.

    I’ll gladly trade a dopey dem for a skulking RINO.

    Time for GOP to clean house. Get rid of Austin.

  12. Barnes is a big loss tho.

    Maybe if she bothered to campaign things would have been different.

  13. How about old smokin’ Joe Gottemoller?

    What’s he taking now?

  14. Trumpion, Austin is locked into a long, long contract.

    He’s glad to be rid of the Jackal.

    He was never Jack’s pawn.

    In fact the Jackal was Austin’s fan tail prawn.

    Warning to Buehler: don’t become Austin’s new prawn.

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