The McLean Count State's Attorney's Office will not represent the County Clerk in the upcoming recount of the vote in the race for Mayor of Normal.
State's Attorney Jason Chambers said he has named a special prosecutor from the Appellate Prosecutor's Office to handle the job.
Chambers said there are a couple reasons for the move to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
"I am friends with Chris Koos. I supported him in his re-election bid. But, also a good friend of mine was pretty active in the campaign of Tiritilli as well," said Chambers.
Marc Tiritilli lost to Mayor Chris Koos by 11 votes. Tiritilli has asked for a discovery recount. That will happen the second week of May. Results of that could lead Tiritilli to ask a judge for a full recount of balloting if he is convinced the outcome of the election should change based on evidence turned up by the initial recount of 25 percent of the precincts in the Town of Normal.
Chambers said hiring the Appellate Prosecutor's Office won't make a difference to the public.
"We have a flat fee that we pay them each year. It doesn't matter if we send them a thousand cases or if we send them one case. It's all covered under that. There is no additional expense to the taxpayers of McLean County," said Chambers.
The expense for a discovery recount is a nominal $10 per precinct or seventy dollars. If Tiritilli, Koos, and the Clerk's office go to court over a full recount, costs could mount for Koos and Tiritilli.
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