Kelley Will Remain Sheriff For 3rd Term After All, GOP Loses 3 Races

JOLIET, IL — After leaving on Sunday morning to attend new sheriff training, Will County Sheriff's deputy Jim Reilly informed Joliet Patch on Tuesday afternoon that he has conceded his race against two-term incumbent Sheriff Mike Kelley following Tuesday's tally of the mail-in ballots and provisional ballots.

Kelley wound up pulling ahead of his Republican challenger by more than 2,100 votes after Tuesday's additional vote counting.

On election night, Nov. 8, Reilly was ahead of Kelley by about 300 votes. Now, a week later, according to the latest totals posted by Will County Clerk Lauren Staley-Ferry, Kelley has 114,500 votes compared to Reilly, who has 112,306 votes —a victory margin of 2,144 votes.

On Election Night, the Will County Clerk's Office initially reported that with 100 percent of all 310 precincts in, Reilly had 110,296 votes compared to Kelley who had 109,682. Several minutes later, the clerk's office updated its website and the new 100 percent totals showed Kelley had greatly cut into Reilly's lead; the new totals showed Reilly at 110,424 votes compared to Kelley's new vote total of 110,135, a much slimmer lead for Reilly at 289 votes.

This marks the second time that Kelley will be elected as the Will County Sheriff, in spite of appearing to be in the loss column after general election night.

In November 2014, Kelley ran against Republican Ken Kaupas, and Kaupas had pulled in 92,979 votes to Kelley’s 92,737 on Election Night.

Provisional and absentee ballots were added a week later. In a stunning reversal, Kelley totaled 94,420 and Ken Kaupas got only 94,022, Joliet Patch reported at the time.

In addition to Kelley overtaking Reilly, two other Will County Democrats emerged ahead of their Republican challengers despite being down by hundreds and more than 1,000 votes respectively on Election Night.

Last week, Republican Joliet criminal defense attorney Bob Bodach had 111,117 votes compared 109,687 for Democrat associate judge Jessica Colon-Sayre, in the race for one of the open Will County Circuit judges. But after Tuesday's tally of the mail-in and provisional ballots, Colon-Sayre now had 114,146 votes while Bodach only got 112,824 votes.

In the Will County Treasurer's race, Joliet Democrat incumbent Tim Brophy had fewer votes than his Republican challenger Raj Pillai of Plainfield according to the unofficial totals on Election Night; Pillai had 111,708 compared to Brophy's total of 111,230 late at night on Nov. 8.

Now, after counting the mail-in ballots and provisional ballots, Brophy is set to win his re-election. Brophy's new vote total is 115,557 compared to Pillai's total of only 113,627.