Getz concedes in 22nd Dist. Kane County Board race
By Mike Danahey mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com December 17, 2012 2:50PM
Updated: January 19, 2013 6:15AM
ELGIN — While finally conceding Monday to Republican Douglas Scheflow in the race for the 22nd district seat on the Kane County Board, Elgin Community College Trustee and Democrat Robert Getz called for reform in the electoral process.
Scheflow had beaten Getz in the November election by just 13 votes. And Scheflow was sworn in on the Kane County Board earlier this month.
But, by Illinois election law, the slim margin of victory — 3,528 votes for Scheflow to Getz’s 3,515 — allowed Getz to have two of the 10 precincts re-tallied in a demonstration recount.
Getz requested the 7th and 43rd precincts. Both he, Scheflow, and associates for both attended the recount last week which upheld the results and took about 2 1/2 hours to complete. Getz still had reservations, but last week noted taking matters to the courts would have cost him $10,000 or more.
Thus, in an emailed statement sent Monday, Getz wrote, “It is very unfortunate that, in the recount process, two precinct official results were shown to be wrong. In addition, a final number for one of those precincts could not be determined after three attempts with different final numbers coming up after each count.”
“I will, therefore be requesting our state Republican and Democratic senators and representatives to review this recount with a goal of correcting the process. In the future, no one should have to follow this process to the dead end we found,” Getz stated.
Getz also volunteered to help Scheflow “where we agree the issues are in the best interest of our District 22 residents.”
