SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Republican Gov. James R. Thompson, jubilant over his victory in the state's Supreme Court, will be sworn in to an unprecedented third consecutive term without the nagging prospect of a vote recount.
The high court, in a 4-3 decision Friday, threw out the recount requested by Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson III and struck down the law governing election contests as unconstitutional.
Thompson is scheduled to be inaugurated Monday.
He defeated Stevenson by 5,074 votes -- less than 0.14 percent of the more than 3.6 million ballots cast Nov. 2. It was the closest gubernatorial race in modern Illinois history.
A beaming Thompson hugged his wife, Jayne, saying he was 'grateful.'
'The court I think ... took a look at the Stevenson petition and said, in essence, 'What you have said here is not enough to overturn the election. If that's so, we ought to get on with the business of government,'' Thompson said.
Flanked by Lt. Gov.-elect George Ryan at a Capitol news conference, he added, 'I think it was not only a right decision -- it was a brave decision. It would have been very easy for the court to have appointed a three-judge panel and said, 'You decide it,' and just shuck off their responsibility.'
Stevenson, his wife Nancy and running mate Grace Mary Stern at his side, said at a late evening news conference in Chicago that he would not contest the Supreme Court's decision.
'The election has ended, I congratulate him (Thompson),' Stevenson said. 'We lost the election and there's no looking back. There will be no recount. We should all of us, Republicans and Democrats, support the Supreme Court and Governor Thompson.'
Stevenson, who had 10 days to ask the court for a rehearing, said the election and recount struggle exposed 'very serious defects' in the way election protests are decided in Illinois.
The former senator last month asked the court's seven justices to appoint a special Election Contest Panel to conduct the first statewide recount in Illinois history. Thompson objected.
The high court ruled Stevenson did not prove a recount would reverse the results. 'They (Stevenson's arguments) amount to little more than an expression of hope,' Chief Justice Howard Ryan wrote in the opinion.
At most, the court said, Stevenson's case would have reduced Thompson's margin by only 2,651 votes -- 2,423 ballots short of the total.
