A clear winner has yet to be declared in the race for Illinois state treasurer, where ballots are still being counted, mainly in Cook County.

The current results show Republican Tom Cross in the lead with 47.93 percent of the votes. Democrat Mike Frerichs is close behind with 47.92 percent of the votes as of Friday night. The current ballot count places Cross in the lead by a slim 0.01 percent, or less than 400 votes. 

“We’ve known since the beginning that this was going to be a very close race,” said Dave Clarkin, spokesman for Mike Frerichs. “It was consistently viewed as one of the closest races in the state, and right now it’s looking to be one of the closest races in Illinois history.”

According to Illinois election law, candidates are allowed to request a recount if the votes are within 5 percent of each other. The recount is considered a “discovery recount” and is non-binding, but it can be used as evidence if a candidate chooses to file an election contest with the Illinois Supreme Court.  

All votes are scheduled to be counted by Nov. 18, and the Illinois State Board of Elections will officially announce the winner of the race on Nov. 30.

“Like most people, we’re watching and waiting for all the votes to be counted,” Clarkin said. “Right now, it’s extremely close; it can go either way.”

The majority of the votes to be counted are mail-in ballots.

“I think particularly for voters in Champaign, Mike, on election night, went straight to the Brookens (Administrative Center) where voters were standing in line to make sure they had the opportunity to vote,” said Clarkin. “It’s important to him to make sure that not only their votes, but the votes of all the people across the state of Illinois, some who waited until three in the morning to vote, have their votes counted.”

This race is one of the closest races in Illinois’ history and both candidates are currently waiting for all votes to be tabulated in order to announce a winner.

Bryan Boccelli, Abigale Svoboda and Marijo Enderle contributed to this report.