Democratic Judge Larry Fulton, left, holds out a ballot for poll watchers as Republican Judge Doug Precht, right, prepares the next ballot on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, during the first day of re-counting for the 2018 Macon County Sheriff’s race at the Macon County offices building in Decatur, Ill. (Jeff Smudde/Herald & Review via AP)
DECATUR, Ill. (AP) — Ballots from a Illinois sheriff election are being recounted – 20 months later.
Tony Brown has been serving as Macon County sheriff after defeating Jim Root, a Republican, by one vote out of roughly 40,000 cast in 2018.
The recount started Tuesday and could last weeks. It was ordered by a judge as a compromise agreed to by both men after Root filed a legal challenge to the one-vote defeat.
Ten election judges — five Republicans and five Democrats — are being paid $10 an hour to recount the ballots by hand.