Ali Leads Montelongo By 43 Votes On Final Count peoriapublicradio.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peoriapublicradio.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Rita Ali s lead in the race for mayor of Peoria is a couple votes wider in the latest results from the Peoria County Election Commission.
Ali s margin over Jim Montelongo increased from 39 to 41 as she earned both votes added Friday in the latest tabulation of vote-by-mail ballots. The final count is set for Monday, with election certification scheduled for Tuesday.
The tight contest has Ali with 8,238 votes (50.1%) to 8,197 for Montelongo (49.9%). Montelongo got 54.4% of the more than 10,300 votes cast on Election Day, while Ali fared significantly better in early voting along with the vote-by-mail results.
Montelongo held a lead of 73 votes after counting finished on Election Night. But Ali moved ahead in the first update as mail-in ballots postmarked on or before April 6 were processed, and has pulled further in front with each subsequent update.
Supplied photos
Rita Ali s lead in the race for mayor of Peoria is a couple votes wider in the latest results from the Peoria County Election Commission.
Ali s margin over Jim Montelongo increased from 39 to 41 as she earned both votes added Friday in the latest tabulation of vote-by-mail ballots. The final count is set for Monday, with election certification scheduled for Tuesday.
The tight contest has Ali with 8,238 votes (50.1%) to 8,197 for Montelongo (49.9%). Montelongo got 54.4% of the more than 10,300 votes cast on Election Day, while Ali fared significantly better in early voting along with the vote-by-mail results.
Montelongo held a lead of 73 votes after counting finished on Election Night. But Ali moved ahead in the first update as mail-in ballots postmarked on or before April 6 were processed, and has pulled further in front with each subsequent update.
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.