Citing the decreasing chances he could close the gap, Jeremy Karlin conceded his bid to be Knox County State’s Attorney.
With 6,059 votes counted as of Thursday afternoon, incumbent John Pepmeyer held a lead of 63 votes over Karlin in the Democratic primary. Pepmeyer had 3,061 votes to Karlin’s 2,998.
Karlin said he didn’t find anything in his study of the numbers that would indicate a recount would help him.
“The voters have voted. And you have to respect that. People don’t like lawyers acting like lawyers in these circumstances. They want to be able to believe that they can rely on election results,” Karlin said.
Karlin said the case would have been different if he had seen anything unusual, such as Pepmeyer taking all the votes in a precinct.
Karlin said he plans on spending time with his family and returning to work on the Galesburg City Council. But Karlin said he will also stay involved in politics this year.
“I’ll be working very hard this summer and fall to elect quality Democratic Party candidates into office,” Karlin said.
Nobody ran in the Republican primary for Knox County State's Attorney. So unless Republicans slate a candidate to run in the general election in November, Pepmeyer will return to office for his third full term.
