UPDATE: Walsh lead in IL-08 Stretches to 405

The early UN-OFFICIAL announced absentee vote totals in Lake County are not good news to Democratic House incumbent Melissa Bean. Republican challenger Joe Walsh has taken a 130-77 edge in asbentee votes in the communities of Avon, Antioch, Benton and Cuba.

These early totals were announced by Lake County Clerk Williard Helander to a group of election judges, attorneys and journalists in the basement of the county office building where voting equipment is stored. This is where the Lake County absentees are being counted.

This morning in McHenry County, Walsh took a majority of the absentees there by a 17-12 margin.

With Walsh having a slim 347-vote lead coming into today, with the absentee votes announced so far, he now is out in front by 405.

There are still hundreds of absentees to count in Lake County and what's believed to be about 200 provisional ballots left to count in Cook County.

Coming into today, Bean and her supporters acknowledged the three-term Congresswoman needed to capture 70% or more of the absentee ballots to overtake Walsh.

There are hundreds more absentees to count in Lake County and Cook County has more than 200 provisional ballots to count today.