Chicago mayoral race: City reports steady in-person turnout after high early voting numbers
Rachel Schilke
Video Embed
Tuesday is the runoff election in the Chicago mayoral race, with numbers showing residents preferred early voting to in-person when choosing to replace Lori Lightfoot as mayor.
Close to 300,000 Chicago residents cast their ballots before Election Day, with Chicagoans casting a record-high 30,044 votes on Monday, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, with the elections board reporting 22.9% total citywide turnout as of noon CDT.
CHICAGO MAYORAL RACE: RUNOFF CANDIDATES RESUME ATTACKS AS ELECTION APPROACHES
“Turnout has been strong and swift heading into Election Day,” Board of Elections Chairwoman Marisel Hernandez said at a Tuesday morning news conference, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Today is the last chance for voters to have their voice heard.”
Hernandez added that voters may not know who the next mayor will be by the end of the day.
Tuesday’s race will mark the end of a fierce battle between candidates Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas, as one of them will be charged with dealing with the city’s rising crime, declining education, and rebuilding the economy in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair ousted incumbent Lori Lightfoot, who was mayor since 2019, in the general election.
Voters will decide between two Democrats: Johnson, a more liberal candidate who promises to reform policing and education with changes in mental health and affordable housing, and Vallas, a centrist who advocates stronger policing and approaches education with a fiscal perspective.
The runoff election is on track to make city history, following similar trends that led to the Feb. 28 general election becoming the most popular early-voting election in Chicago’s history.
In the runoff, 292,591 ballots have been cast before Election Day, including early voting and mail-in ballots. This is more early ballots than during the first round of voting in February, Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Max Bever told the Chicago Tribune. Another 91,838 mail-in ballots have yet to be returned, but not all are expected to be mailed on time or postmarked properly.
Bever said during a news conference on Tuesday afternoon that he expected vote totals to exceed the Feb. 28 election at somewhere between 36% to 38% of all registered voters.
“Looks like we are having another smooth and orderly Election Day so far in Chicago,” Bever said Tuesday. “While early voting is definitely strong and swift, we are heading back into a somewhat slow and sleepy Election Day.”
Election officials had also described day-of voting on Feb. 28 as “sluggish,” with the day ending at a 36% turnout, slightly less than previous elections.
Similar to the general election, voters 55 and up are leading the way in voter turnout, Bever said, with voters aged 55-64 and 65-74 about tied in voter turnout — each bloc has cast about 56,900 ballots, or 18.72% of counted ballots.
Polling conducted prior to Tuesday shows that voters aged 65 and older are throwing their support behind Vallas at 50.6% and 53.4% for those aged 50-64.
Voters aged 18 to 24 have voted the least so far, with 10,796 ballots or approximately 3% of ballots cast.
The most active voting precinct is Cook County Jail, the first jail in the United States to operate as a precinct with in-person voting in March 2020.
Chicago already reported some issues with voting locations on Tuesday. Bever said 14 polling locations delayed opening on Tuesday morning. Several locations also still fail to comply with requirements set in the Americans with Disabilities Act — on the Feb. 28, just a third of locations were fully accessible by ADA standards.
Braeside Elementary School, Red Oak Elementary School, and Highland Park Public Library went into lockdown at about 11:50 a.m. CDT following a heavy police presence at Highland Park High School. In total, the three locations served as polling locations for 16 precincts.
“HPHS has been placed on a lockdown due to a report of a student potentially in possession of a gun at school. There are no reported shots fired,” the high school said in a statement.
Numbers provided to the Washington Examiner showed that 17,866 voters would be affected by the three lockdowns.
Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega instructed voters affected by the lockdowns to visit the Lake County Clerk’s Office to vote if they would prefer not to wait until the lockdown is lifted.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Another issue included several Chicago voters not receiving their mail-in ballots on time due to the quick turnaround between the general and runoff elections, attorney Clifford Helm told the Chicago Tribune.
Polling ahead of the runoff election showed Vallas holding a slight lead over Johnson. A Victory Research poll released Sunday night shows Vallas with a 4-point lead over Johnson, 49.6% to 45.4%. The number of “undecided” voters shrank from 9.6% to 5%, according to the poll.