Objections to 2027 candidates are due Monday at 5 p.m. None had been filed as of Saturday

The window for challenging the nominating papers of 2027 city candidates closes at 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2. As of Saturday, no objection had been publicly reported against any candidate for mayor, clerk, treasurer, alderperson or police District Council. Our objections page, which lists objections as the Board of Election Commissioners publishes them, still shows none.

That is likely to change on Monday. Campaigns usually file in the final hours, after they finish going through a rival's petitions line by line. An objection that succeeds removes a candidate from the Feb. 23 ballot.

This follows our Friday story on the photocopied pages in Mayor Brandon Johnson's filing.

What was reported Friday

• No decision on the mayor. Election lawyer Burt Odelson, who represents several mayoral candidates, told ABC7 Chicago that no decision had been made on challenging Johnson, though he said, "I don't like what I've seen so far." ABC7 said the review was expected to continue through the weekend.
• The Wilson campaign. Ricky Hendon, who is working for businessman Willie Wilson's campaign, told ABC7 that some of Johnson's pages are photocopies, while the law requires originals.
• The mayor. Johnson said Friday he is confident he has enough signatures, ABC7 reported.
• Mendoza. Comptroller Susana Mendoza's petitions are also under review, ABC7 said. Her campaign said it is confident she has enough valid signatures. Mendoza said she filed about 26,000.
• The wider field. Johnson is one of at least six mayoral candidates who could face challenges, according to ABC7.

Earlier in the week, the Sun-Times reported that Alexi Giannoulias's campaign manager said everyone's petitions would be scrutinized, and that Wilson said he is "looking at everybody." The paper also reported which challenges it expected among the other candidates. Those are expectations, not filings.

What our records add

We count the filled signature lines on every sheet of the Board's copy of each petition. That is not the Board's count of valid signatures. It doesn't check whether a signer is registered, lives in the city, signed twice or signed a photocopy. The Board counts valid signatures only after someone objects.

Against the 12,500-signature minimum for mayor, our mayor's race page shows:

• Brandon Johnson: 31,904 lines on 3,301 sheets, about 2.55 times the minimum.
• Willie Wilson: 28,546 lines, about 2.3 times.
• John Kelly: 35,993. Mike Quigley: 41,587.
• Alexi Giannoulias: 56,232 and Matt Brewer: 32,064, both incomplete because our copies have fewer readable sheets than the Board's receipts list.
• Susana Mendoza: our copy of her filing is only a small part of it, so we have no meaningful count yet.

The other mayoral filers are not yet on our list. The Sun-Times reported their own totals at filing, ranging from about 13,000 for Danielle Carter-Walters to nearly 40,000 for Maria Pappas.

For the other citywide offices, our counts show Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin at 32,262 lines and challenger Bruce Leon at 40,760. Clerk Anna Valencia, the only clerk candidate, has 18,826.

In Council races, where the minimum is 473 valid signatures, our ward-by-ward list shows the closest margins among the 85 candidates we have counted. One 43rd Ward filing has 70 lines on our count. Two candidates, in the 8th and 25th wards, have 495. Six more are under 700. Our Oct. 27 story has the full list.

How an objection works

Any registered voter in the district can object. The objection is filed with the Board at 69 W. Washington St., Suite 800, according to its notice. The Board, sitting as the Electoral Board, assigns a hearing officer. When signatures are challenged, Board staff compare each one against voter records, and the candidate and objector can contest the results line by line. The Electoral Board rules, and the losing side can ask a Cook County judge to review the decision.

If Johnson is challenged, it would be the first time a sitting mayor's petitions went through that process, NBC 5 reported last week.

What's next

• Mon., Nov. 2, 5 p.m.: objections due.
• By Nov. 4: ballot-position lotteries for candidates who filed at the same moment, under the Board's election calendar.
• November and December: Electoral Board hearings and rulings.
• Dec. 17: the Board certifies the ballot.

We will add each objection to our objections page once the Board publishes it, with the objector as the Board lists them, and update it as rulings come in.