UPDATED at 4:38 p.m. by Rick Pearson, David Kidwell, John Chase and Jeff Coen
Leading Republicans this afternoon are privately expressing doubts that Bill Brady can overcome Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn's narrow lead following Tuesday's election, and a Tribune survey of election officials likewise indicates there may not be enough ballots left uncounted to make a difference.
Brady and his supporters this morning held out hope that tens of thousands of absentee ballots yet to be counted, along with other stragglers, could help him make up Quinn's lead, which started at 8,300 votes in the morning and had grown to more than 16,000 by late today.
"Do we recognize the reality of coming up with 8,000 votes as an uphill climb? Of course we do. But nobody's ready to throw in the towel," said Brien Sheahan, the lead counsel for the state Republican Party.
But as the day wore on, a survey of election officials in about three dozen of the state’s most populous counties indicated the real number of votes left to be counted is much smaller. And most of those outstanding votes will come from areas where Democrat Quinn did better than Republican Brady.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/11/absentee-ballots-governor-quinn-brady.html