Municipal elections were held across Illinois on Tuesday, with voters heading to the polls around the state to make their voices heard in local races impacting their communities.
While state law allows mail-in ballots to be counted for up to two weeks after they arrive, provided they are postmarked by Election Day, county election officials responsible for tabulating votes released preliminary results after polls closed Tuesday night.
Results for each Chicago-area county can be found at the links below:
Suburban Cook County election results
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DuPage County election results
Kankakee County election results
Kendall County election results
McHenry County election results
Here's a look at a few notable or historic races:
Michelle Nelson is poised to become the first female mayor of suburban Flossmoor in the village's nearly 100-year history. Nelson won 58% of the vote to Lakshmi Emory's 42%, according to the Cook County Clerk's office, with 446 votes separating the two after incumbent Mayor Paul Braun announced in September that he would not seek a fourth term.
Tiffany Henyard, a two-term Village of Dolton trustee, earned 82% of the vote to become the first female mayor of Dolton, months after defeating incumbent Mayor Riley Rogers in a four-person Democratic primary.
Votes are still being counted in Mettawa, where former Mayor Jess Ray was the only candidate on the ballot and earned 104 votes, according to the Lake County Clerk's office. Incumbent Mayor Casey Urlacher - the brother of Chicago Bears great Brian Urlacher who was charged with conspiring to help run an illegal offshore gambling business - had previously announced he would not seek reelection. But on the final day of his presidency in January 2021, then-President Donald Trump gave Casey Urlacher a full pardon. Casey Urlacher later announced he would run for another term as mayor as a write-in candidate. It was not immediately clear how many votes he received.
Also in the northern suburbs, Kristal Larson earned nearly 67% of the vote against one opponent to win the race for Avon Township Clerk, according to preliminary results. Equality Illinois said she is now the first out transgender person elected to township office in Illinois, while Avon Township Democrats said she was the first transgender candidate to run in Lake County. Her race garnered some attention after Lake County Board member Terry Wilke, backing an opposing slate of candidates, sent a campaign mailer identifying her by her former name - an act known as "deadnaming" that drew widespread condemnation. Under public pressure, Wilke later resigned from the board's Diversity & Inclusion Committee. While Larson won her office on Tuesday, it appeared that at the same time, Wilke lost his bid for reelection to the position of Avon Township Supervisor.
Another victory lauded by Equality Illinois was that of Alana Giselle Banks, who the group said will become the first Black trans woman to serve on a public school board in the United States after she won a spot on the Decatur Public Schools District 61 Board of Education, according to preliminary election results posted by the Macon County Clerk.
In west suburban Oak Park, voters rejected a referendum to defund the police, with 6,723 ballots, about 68% of the vote, cast against the measure compared to 3,072 in favor.
Lou Presta was poised to win a third term as mayor of Crestwood despite a federal grand jury indictment filed against him in August alleging he accepted bribes from a red-light camera company operating in the village, lied to investigators, failed to file an income tax return and lied about about his earnings to avoid paying taxes, among other charges. Presta pleaded not guilty to all counts. He was poised to win reelection Tuesday with 62% of the vote against two other candidates, according to the Cook County Clerk's office.
It also appeared that Lyons Mayor Chris Getty will win reelection nearly a year and a half after federal agents raided the Lyons Township Village Hall in September 2019, amid a federal corruption probe that has ensnared several state and local elected officials. Getty has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing but has since paid more than $95,000 in legal fees to a Chicago law firm for their services, campaign finance records show. He won nearly 70% of the vote Tuesday, preliminary results show, earning 1,856 votes to his opponent's 802 votes.
Results reported beginning Tuesday for any of the races in the 2021 municipal elections across the state have not been certified and as such, are not yet final.
