They knocked on doors and sent mailings and when the ballots were tallied Tuesday, three votes appeared to separate the incumbent and his challenger in the Kane County Board Third District Democratic primary.
Don Ishmael, a first-term incumbent who has been active in the local Democratic party, fell three votes shy of the 264 votes garnered by Anita Marie Lewis, one of the candidates recruited by Republican Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen to run on the Democratic ballot, unofficial results show.
The results are not final. Ballots, including provisional and mail-in, have yet to be counted, said Linda Fechner, executive director of the Aurora Election Commission, which handled the race.
Voters who cast provisional ballots or who voted by mail have additional time to turn in materials or for their already-mailed ballots to arrive at the Aurora Election Commission office, meaning the commission must wait to find out how many ballots remain to be counted, Fechner said. Election officials will begin counting outstanding ballots in two weeks, she said.
In the meantime, Lewis said she is “cautiously optimistic.” She said she has heard absentee ballots tend to be more conservative, and described that as the race she ran.
Still, she said, if she wins, she plans to become active in the Democratic party in Aurora. She wants the party to be “pro-Aurora,” rather than focused on fighting an opposing party, she said.
“It’s never been about Republican or Democrat to me, it’s been about serving my community,” she said. “But now that I’ve seen how the Democratic party is in Aurora, and I really don’t think they’re serving Aurora, I plan on becoming active in the Democratic party in Aurora.”
She has acknowledged being approached by Lauzen, among the county’s most powerful Republicans, and others to consider running.
Lauzen said previously he sent an email supporting Lewis and two other board candidates and placed phone calls to his own supporters, urging them to back the three candidates. The two other candidates he supported appear to have lost their races, preliminary results show.
He has said he did not want the three board candidates to run as Republicans because those districts fall in Aurora, a Democratic stronghold.
Ishmael blasted the recruiting of candidates to run on the Democratic ballot, said it caused confusion among voters.
“It muddies the waters across the board,” he said.
Ishmael said he would wait for the commission to finish their work before deciding how to proceed. He hasn’t yet decided whether he will challenge the results, he said.
“It’s three votes,” he said. “I’ll be patient, let it play out. If she won rightfully, that’s fine. If I find out, if the commission says there’s been some other extenuating circumstances, I will seek advice from my counterparts and go from there.”
