Cross, Frerichs Separated By 0.001 Percent In Race For Treasurer

In the race for Illinois State Treasurer, Republican Tom Cross' lead widened ever so slightly Tuesday over Democrat Mike Frerichs. But that 500 vote advantage is microscopic, when compared to the 3.3 million votes cast.

A week after Election Day, thousands of ballots across Illinois still need to be counted in what might become the closest race in Illinois history. The candidates are currently split by 0.001 percent.

Dozens of volunteers from both campaigns have been stationed for days at the Cook County Clerk's office, where they watch officials counting ballots from the suburban areas of the county.

It's in suburban Cook where the Cross campaign alleges some voters cast more than one provisional ballot before Election Day. Cross' campaign manager, Kevin Artl, says their office found repeated voters on a list provided by the County Clerk. 

"That's just one small sample," he said. "As we get more data, we'll do more investigative comparing to early voting ... It was concerning to us and we took it to David Orr's office and we told them we want to work with them to correct the problem."

But the County Clerk calls this accusation "irresponsible" and says the Cross campaign is "confused." 

Over at the Frerichs' camp, spokesman Dave Clarkin says they've been riding out the counting period, and says he doesn't want to discount ballots yet to be counted downstate.

"We don't want clerks to feel like they're being rushed, we want to make sure that those ballots are being counted accurately," he said. "We had a really large volume of ballots that were cast by mail. In a close race like this, it makes a difference. In other races it doesn't."

Both campaigns say they're looking forward to more solid results by next week.