NOTE: You can check the latest election results HERE after polling places close at 7 p.m.
Chicago voters are heading to the polls on Tuesday as they vote on several citywide offices, including a hotly-contested mayoral race, and in their local City Council races, and though experts predict that we could be in for a long evening, the first results won’t take long to hit the wires.
Polls close at 7 p.m., but according to CBOE officials, all votes that were cast via the mail or at in-person early voting locations by Monday night will be tabulated Tuesday, and are expected to be released at approximately 7:15 p.m.
According to CBOE data, a total of 112,774 mail-in ballots were returned by Monday night, and another 131,806 ballots were cast at early voting locations across the city.
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That means that Chicagoans will know the results of nearly 250,000 votes within minutes of the closing of polls.
While turnout on Election Day itself has been relatively “sluggish,” according to officials, further updates to vote totals may take a bit longer to put together. According to officials, any mail-in ballots that are received Tuesday, whether through the mail or at one of the 55 drop-off boxes situated across the city, will not be counted until Wednesday morning.
As things stood heading into election day, there were 100,843 outstanding mail-in ballots, and officials say that the typical return rate for those ballots is around 83.5%, meaning that tens of thousands of ballots may still be turned in during the coming days.
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When considering the total turnout of the 2019 primary election was just over 560,000 ballots, that could potentially point to a wait of several days before definitive winners can be identified, including in a mayoral race where a runoff is all but assured to take place.
A spokesperson for the board of elections anticipates that the board will be able to get most ballots counted within a matter of days, and that the board hopes to certify the results by mid-March at the latest.
Candidates who finish within five percentage points of a runoff spot can request a recount of ballots, according to officials.
For voters turning in ballots on Tuesday, officials are encouraging residents to bring ballots into their local post offices to ensure that they are postmarked for Feb. 28. Otherwise, those voters can turn their ballots in to one of the 55 drop boxes situated across the city.
Any ballot that is postmarked by Feb. 28 will be counted in the election, and officials say that any ballot with a Feb. 28 postmark that is received by March 14 will be included in the final tally.
