The Chicago municipal election is set for Feb. 28, but there is a very real possibility that we may not know the final two contenders for the April 4 runoff until just weeks before that vote takes place.
That’s because of how tightly-packed the contenders are in polls leading up to next week’s election.
Under Chicago election law, mail-in ballots can be counted if they are received by March 14, and as a result, some candidates may petition for a recount of votes if they are close enough to believe that they still may qualify for the April 4 runoff when all is said and done.
“It might take some time after election night to call some of these races, even the mayor’s race,” Max Bever of the Chicago Board of Elections says.
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Election attorney Burt Odelson agrees.
“It’s very, very possible that we could have discovery recounts to see who comes in second, to see who is entitled to run on April 4,” he says.
Several factors could be at play, with the first being how closely-contested the race has become. There are a good number of candidates who have paths into the top-two spots in voting, which would then qualify them for the April 4 head-to-head runoff in the race.
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What’s more, mail-in ballots, which are far outpacing any previous mayoral election in Chicago, could be key. Those ballots can be submitted until midnight on Election Day, and so long as they are postmarked by Feb. 28, they can be counted as long as they are received by March 14.
Results in the election are due to be certified by March 21, and if a candidate finishes within 5% of the top-two spots in the race, then they would be legally allowed to request a recount, according to election experts.
That condensed timeframe would not only mean that Chicago voters may not know who will be on their ballots for the runoff until just weeks prior to the vote, but also would mean that candidates wouldn’t have much time to fundraise, run advertisements and push for votes in that limited turnaround time.
Mail-in balloting has become an enormous part of the 2023 election cycle, with more than 73,000 ballots having already been returned by voters. That far out-paces the 49,652 mail-in ballots that were cast in the entire 2019 election, according to CBOE data.
Just over 209,000 voters requested mail-in ballots for this election, meaning that more than 130,000 ballots remain outstanding, with more potentially being requested in the days ahead.
Tuesday also marked an interesting milestone in the election, as more than 132,000 ballots have already been returned through the mail and at early-voting sites. That number now exceeds the entire total of early votes cast in the 2019 race, officials said.
