PEORIA, Ill. — Dr. Rita Ali led the Peoria Mayoral race for most of Tuesday night over Councilman Jim Montelongo, but the final data dump of the night put Montelongo on top by 73 votes.
However, Ali told her campaign party she was not going to concede because 675 mail-in votes were yet to be counted.
“I’m still optimistic, because I know all 675 didn’t get mailed in, but a good number of them were likely mailed in, so I’m looking to win the election by those [vote by mail] votes, and I did really good in the early votes and the vote by mail,” she said.
Ali defeated Montelongo in the early votes and votes by mail counted on Tuesday, 3,210-2,352.
Peoria County Election Commission Executive Director Thomas Bride confirmed the 675 were outstanding, and as long as they were postmarked on or before Apr. 6 and were received by the commission by Apr. 20, they would be counted.
Bride said the vote totals would be updated online as they’re received over the next two weeks.
“I haven’t given up. Until every last vote is counted, this thing is not over,” Ali said.
Montelongo, who called Election Night a “roller coaster,” said the candidates have no choice but to let the chips fall where they may.
“Just going to have to take it day by day, [and] see what happens. We’ll have our representatives there for when we start doing the counting,” he said.
“So, there’s not much more we can do but just try and remain hopeful.”
Full interview with Ali:
Full interview with Montelongo:
