Republican Joe Walsh (or Congressman-elect Joe Walsh, as his staff now call him) continues to lead Mellisa Bean in suburban Chicago’s 8th Congressional District.  By his lead has shrank from 750 on Election night to approximately 300 votes today.  The margin was shaved in part to 6 Cook County precincts that did not return ballots on Election night.  The ballots, from Hanover, Palatine, and Schaumburg somehow ended up in Cicero, and from there they floated around until they reached the Cook County Election board around 10:00 AM the next morning.

More from Jim Geraghty at National Review:

“We are in the fight of our lives as we count ballots in Cook County,” says Nick Provenzano, the campaign manager for Walsh who is now signing his messages, “Spokesman for Congressman-elect Joe Walsh, Illinois’ 8th District.” Provenzano offers a description of an exceptionally odd ballot-counting process: “On Election Night, there were six precincts that were still not counted at 1 a.m. We discovered that they had problems in the polling place and were moved to nearby Elgin, Illinois to count the ballots.  At some point in the middle of the night all six precincts  — representing thousands of votes — had been moved to Cicero, Illinois for “safe keeping”

This reminds me of the “safe-keeping” of ballots in Minnesota during the Coleman-Franken recount. National Review continues to detail other irregularities:

“Identifying potential mischief, the Illinois GOP dispatched volunteers to track down these voters to ensure no foul play was occurring with these outstanding ballots,” Provenzano continues. “What they found was alarming. They documented their findings on affidavits and they were submitted to law enforcement for review.” The affidavits describe one voter who had not lived at the listed address in the past 15 years; a voter who a caregiver said “could not respond to questions because of dementia,” and a group of ballots sent to a Clearbrook home for the mentally disabled in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

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Multiple sources on the ground in New York’s 23^rd Congressional district confirm that ACORN is expected to be actively protesting the election results in Clinton County, New York tomorrow. This move comes on the heels of a legal win for the Hoffman camp today as it was ruled that all poll watchers would have to be registered voters of NY 23.

Rob Ryan, spokesman for the Hoffman campaign, states that the legal decision is all about ballot security and that the move by ACORN is not a surprise.

“The Working Family Party is desperate, Today’s poll show that Doug Hoffman is drawing votes from all Demographics”.

While the focus tomorrow will be on securing a win for Hoffman, Ryan says there are still worries about:

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