MACON COUNTY, Ill. (WAND) - The final hearing remains in the 2018 Macon County sheriff's race trial.
Council agreed in court on Monday that the hearing set for Feb. 11 would be the final hearing for testimonies in the case. Then closing statements would be written and submitted to the judge.
During Monday's hearing, former county clerk Steve Bean took the stand and was questioned about the integrity of the 2018 General Election.
Bean said there were some discrepancies with ballots entered into the tabulator without election judge signatures. He correlated this with human error.
In another instance, Chris Sherer, council for Sheriff Tony Brown, cited that on election night, one precinct had an issue with their electronic voting machine. The wrong precinct number was entered into the machine and the wrong ballot was brought up for the voter.
Again, Bean cited that there is always room for human error is some situations.
The current Macon County clerk, Josh Tanner, also took the stand.
The race between Democrat Tony Brown and Republican Jim Root, which initially came down to one vote, led to a trial involving 1,337 contested ballots.
On Nov. 20, 2018, the Macon County clerk named Tony “Chubby” Brown as Sheriff with 19,655 votes. Brown won by one vote over Root.
A full recount was done and revealed on July 24, 2020, which showed Brown ahead by 18 votes with 1,394 remaining ballots contested and uncounted ballots.
