Getz ponders next move after recount upholds Scheflow win
By Emily McFarlan Miller and Mike Danahey emcfarlan@stmedianetwork.com | mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com December 12, 2012 4:04PM
Robert Getz, Elgin Community College trustee
Updated: January 14, 2013 7:25AM
ELGIN — A demonstration recount Wednesday in the 22nd District race for Kane County Board upheld Elgin Republican Douglas Scheflow as winner, according to the Kane County Clerk’s Office.
But his opponent, Democrat Bob Getz, said he remains unsure whether he will ask a court to rule on the official outcome of the election.
Scheflow had beaten Getz, an Elgin Community College trustee and self-described “curmudgeon who looks after the budget,” in the November election by just 13 votes. And he was sworn in on the Kane County Board earlier this month.
But the slim margin of victory — 3,528 votes for Scheflow to Getz’s 3,515 — allowed Getz to have two of the 10 precincts recounted, according to Illinois election law. He requested the 7th and 43rd precincts, according to the clerk’s office.
Getz said he attended that recount Wednesday morning, where four people, including both a Republican judge and a Democratic judge, recounted the votes for each precinct by hand — one precinct three times and the other, two.
“And the totals never came out the same. I either picked up three votes in a precinct or lost one,” Getz said.
Kane County Deputy Clerk Stan Bond confirmed that both Getz and Scheflow attended the recount, both with guests, and it took about 2½ hours. It had gone “very smoothly,” he said.
But, Bond said, “Nothing that happened today alters the vote or election in any way.”
Getz said his associates told him it could cost him about $10,000 to take his challenge any further. That cost has him still pondering what he will do next.
Scheflow could not be reached for comment Wednesday by The Courier-News.
