- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Election 2018: Anderson, Harry head for runoff in judge’s race; Krones elected as county’s first female DA
While the results from Tuesday’s primary election remain preliminary for another month until the election is certified, the vote counts for the Superior Court judge and district attorney’s races indicate that the top vote-getters have statistically insurmountable leads.
In the Superior Court race, a three-person field formed earlier this year in the run to succeed Judge Stephen Hedstrom, who chose not to seek a fourth term.
On Tuesday, Shanda Harry, a deputy county counsel for the county of Lake, held a steady lead throughout the count of early absentees and 70 county precincts over District Attorney Don Anderson and attorney Andre Ross.
The preliminary vote count, finished early Wednesday morning, showed Harry with 46.1 percent, or 3,541 votes, with Anderson trailing with 42.9 percent or 3,292 votes, and Ross with 10.6 percent or 813 votes. The initial results showed there were 32 write-in votes, accounting for 0.4 percent of the vote.
In order to win the seat outright, Harry would have had to have 50 percent of the vote plus one, thus the need for a runoff with Anderson in November.
In the district attorney’s race, Susan Krones held a commanding lead in the preliminary results, with 59 percent, or 4,339 votes, compared to attorney Steven Brown’s 40.4 percent or 2,972 votes. There also were 45 write-in votes, or 0.6 percent of the overall count.
Based on the preliminary results, Krones, a longtime county prosecutor who also served as a judge advocate general in the US Army, becomes the first woman in Lake County history to be elected to the district attorney’s job.
Lake County Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley is expected to issue a full count of ballots remaining to be counted in the coming days, as she and her staff go about the work of the official canvass that is needed to fully certify the election within 30 days.
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