Though the official results might not be finalized until as late as April 1st, incumbent Knox County State’s Attorney John Pepmeyer has claimed re-election victory in the race for his current seat.
On his re-election Facebook page, the current top prosecutor posted a message of thanks and appreciation to his supporters for the re-election nod. Calls to Pepmeyer earlier today were not immediately returned.
Approximately 67 votes separate Pepmeyer from his opponent, Galesburg attorney Jeremy Karlin, who announced his concession earlier today furthering a Pepmeyer victory. 36 democratic vote-by-mail ballots and eight provisional ballots from the City of Galesburg are outstanding.
A question of outstanding county ballots left uncertainty Tuesday night as well, which Knox County Clerk Scott Erickson tells WGIL are in the process of being tallied.
“We’ve got 49 absentees that are here, but I think the majority of those are Republican,” Erickson says. “There are 21 though, mail-in applications that we know are Democrat that have not come back yet. Then any provisional balloting and stuff that would potentially be in play–I think we had 12 total provisional ballots. I know a couple of those are not going to count and I know at least one will count.”
According to the numbers, Karlin would have needed nearly every unknown vote from both the county and the city in order to win.
No Republican candidate has announced candidacy for the general election, so for now, Pepmeyer would be the presumptive State’s Attorney for the next four years.
