Updated 4/8/2021 7:43 PM While winners can confidently be declared in most of the April 6 consolidated election races, the Mettawa mayor contest between incumbent Casey Urlacher and former mayor Jess Ray might not be known until next week. The reason for the delay? Urlacher is running as a write-in candidate.
Lake County Clerk Robin O'Connor said her goal is for write-in ballots to be counted and uploaded to her office's website by Tuesday if not earlier. Mettawa, a village of about 550 residents, has a history of close contests. Ray, who served as mayor from 2009 to 2013, said Thursday he had to wait 14 days after the 2009 election to find out that he'd won by three votes.