Originally published on April 14, 2021 4:09 pm
Rita Ali now leads Jim Montelongo by 39 votes in the still-contested race to become Peoria s next mayor.
The Peoria County Election Commission released its latest tabulation of mail-in ballots on Wednesday. The next update is Friday. The final count is set for April 20, with election certification scheduled for April 21.
Montelongo sent a letter to the Peoria County State s Attorney s Office questioning the election commission s mail-in ballot procedures, but the commission s executive director, Tom Bride, defends how his office is conducting the count.
Montelongo held a razor-thin lead on Election night, but as more mail-in ballots postmarked on or before April 6 arrive, the balance has tipped to Ali.
Tim Shelley / Peoria Public Radio
Peoria County Election Commission Executive Director Tom Bride says his office is following all state laws and rules regarding mail-in ballot tabulation.
This comes after a Peoria mayoral candidate accused the commission of mishandling absentee ballots counted on April 8. Through an attorney, Jim Montelongo claims poor record keeping makes it impossible to tell when mail-in ballots were received by the election authority.
Those ballots put his challenger, Rita Ali, in the lead. She widened that lead to 35 votes upon additional tabulation on Monday.
Bride said the mail-in ballots are sealed, bar-coded, and kept in a locked room under constant surveillance. He says the ballots are only opened by election judges one Democrat and one Republican.
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Rita Ali's lead over Jim Montelongo grew to 35 votes in the latest tally of mail-in ballots, which are set to determine who becomes Peoria's next mayor.
Peoria County s election chief is disputing a mayoral candidate s claims that ballots aren t being properly handled during a tight election race.
Peoria City Councilman Jim Montelongo s campaign on Monday released a letter sent last week claiming that Illinois law isn t being followed in the handling of mail-in ballots.
He claims, through attorney Bill Atkins, that ballots haven t been properly segregated by days of receipt, so it s impossible to tell which days they came in.
Montelongo and City Councilwoman Rita Ali are locked in a close contest to succeed Jim Ardis as Peoria s mayor. The lead was held by Montelongo – by a 73-vote margin – on election night but, as vote-by-mail ballots have arrived, the lead has flipped. Ali now holds a 35-vote lead.