David Gill trails Rodney Davis by 1,283 votes in the Illinois 13th Congressional District. He has made a call for all votes to be counted. (Photo by Zach Dietmeier)

By Zach Dietmeier

BLOOMINGTON - The 14 county clerks of the 13th Congressional District say it might be time for Dr. David Gill to pack up his campaign.

District-wide, 2,527 votes remain outstanding, including absentee, provisional, and military ballots. Gill said early Wednesday that outstanding votes in Macon and Champaign Counties could help close the gap; Macon County Clerk Steve Bean said that won't happen.

"I had a couple of calls from Gill and Gill had some people upstairs who saw we were running a smooth operation," said Gill. "I don't understand. All you have now is what every county has."

Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten echoes Bean.

"You can do the math and apply the percentages that we have so far for Davis and Gill," said Hulten. "You can realize that this may affect the margin, but there's no reason to think that 90 percent of these votes are going to one candidate or the other."

Gill cited Champaign and Macon Counties as potential areas where ground could be gained by absentee and provisional ballots, which confused Hulten.

"Honestly, I have no explanation," said Hulten. "We are the biggest county in the district and it's where David Gill did the best. That's the only reason I can think why we were singled out."

Bean agrees.

"Didn't quite understand, and I called and talked to two or three people on the campaign that we're dealing with now," said Bean. "Honestly, I can't remember the last time I talked to Dr. Gill personally. I don't know if I've talked to him this year."

Both clerks say a record return on outstanding ballots would be around 50 percent, or about 1,264 votes. Even if Gill won every single return in that scenario, he would still be short of Republican opponent Rodney Davis by 19 tallies.

With all precincts reporting, Gill trails Davis by 1,283 votes.

Gill would have to win approximately 75 percent of all outstanding ballots to overcome the deficit.

Zach Dietmeier can be reached at zach.dietmeier@cumulus.com.