Filing for Chicago's 2027 ballot closes at 5 p.m. today. Here's what to watch in the mayor's race and the wards

Candidate filing for Chicago's Feb. 23, 2027 election closes at 5 p.m. today, Oct. 26. Whoever turns in nominating papers by then can be on the ballot for mayor, clerk, treasurer or one of the 50 City Council seats, unless a challenge knocks them off, according to the Board of Election Commissioners' calendar.

Why it matters: today sets the list of names every voter will choose from in February. Starting tomorrow, the fight shifts to the objection period, when any voter can challenge a candidate's signatures.

This is a follow-up to our Oct. 24 story on Mayor Brandon Johnson's filing. Here is what changed since then, and what to watch before and after the deadline. We will update ward race pages once the Board posts the final filings; this story does not give final counts.

What happened this morning

Comptroller Susana Mendoza and cardiologist Lisa Nee filed for mayor early Monday, which put them in the lottery for the last spot on the ballot, the Chicago Tribune reported. Mendoza said she turned in more than 26,000 signatures and Nee about 31,000, according to the Tribune. Candidates for mayor need at least 12,500 valid signatures.

The Tribune reported that attorney William Quinlan, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, Cook County Board of Review Commissioner George Cardenas and businessman Joe Holberg said they would file before the deadline. If all of them do, the race would have 12 candidates, by the Tribune's count.

They would join the candidates who filed earlier. By the Tribune's tally, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias turned in about 60,000 signatures, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley 42,000, lobbyist John Kelly 36,000, Johnson 33,000, Chicago Housing Authority commissioner Matt Brewer 32,000 and businessman Willie Wilson 30,000. Fox 32 has profiles of the candidates who have filed.

What our records add

More committees than candidates. Our mayor's race page lists 17 people with a campaign committee registered for the race with the Illinois State Board of Elections, as of Oct. 25. A committee is not a candidacy. Six people on that list are not in the Tribune's expected field: Danielle Carter-Walters, Jabari L. Taylor, Jessica Maronto, Latonia Brooks, Liam Stanton and Zoe Ma. Watch whether any of them turn in papers today. (Pappas, who the Tribune said would file, had no committee registered for this race on our list.)

Seven incumbents to watch. As of the Board's receipts through Oct. 21, our alderman candidate list had 72 candidates in 49 wards, including 43 sitting alderpersons. The seven incumbents we had no filing for were:

• Ald. William E. Hall (6th Ward)
• Ald. Marty Quinn (13th)
• Ald. Matthew J. O'Shea (19th)
• Ald. Michael D. Rodriguez (22nd)
• Ald. Byron Sigcho-López (25th)
• Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th)
• Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd)

Receipts arrive in batches, and many candidates file on the last day, so a missing name on Oct. 21 says nothing about anyone's plans. The 42nd Ward, downtown, was the only ward with no candidate of any kind on that list.

Where there are races already. On the same list, 19 wards had more than one candidate: the 1st, 7th, 8th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 29th, 30th, 32nd, 33rd, 35th, 44th, 45th, 46th, 48th and 49th. Four of those (the 1st, 25th, 44th and 45th) had three. The other 30 wards had one candidate or none, so today's late filings decide whether many of them are contested at all.

The signature bar for alderperson is lower. A Council candidate needs at least 473 valid signatures from voters in the ward. Our ward pages show our own count of filled-in signature lines, not the Board's count of valid ones, which the Board checks only if someone objects.

What to watch after 5 p.m.

• Oct. 27 to Nov. 2: objections. Any registered voter can challenge a candidate's papers. Wilson said on the first day of filing that he would review rivals' petitions, WBEZ reported. Mendoza would not say Monday whether she would challenge anyone, according to the Tribune. We will list each objection on our objections page.
• The ballot lottery. Candidates who were in line when filing opened on Oct. 19 and early this morning are entered in lotteries for the first and last ballot spots, as WBEZ and the Tribune reported.
• Dec. 17: last day to withdraw; the Board certifies the ballot.
• Feb. 23, 2027: Election Day, with an April 6 runoff where no one wins a majority.

To see your own ward's race, type your address into our 2027 voter guide.