The Chicago City Council's outliers: Ald. Raymond Lopez votes with the majority on divided votes less than half the time
On the Council's 93 divided roll calls this term, the average alderperson voted with the winning side 86.5% of the time. Ald. Raymond Lopez: 47.3%.
On the Chicago City Council's divided votes, one alderperson stands apart from the rest. Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) voted with the winning side on 44 of the 93 divided roll calls he cast a vote on this term, 47.3%. The average for all 50 alderpersons is 86.5%. The next-lowest member, Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward), was at 71.7%.
Lopez also cast more lone "no" votes than the rest of the Council combined: 21 of the term's 44 roll calls with exactly one no vote were his.
How we measured it
A divided roll call is a final vote on key legislation, as the City Clerk flags it, with at least one no vote. There have been 93 since the term began on May 15, 2023, out of 1,224 final roll calls. For each one we took the side that carried (yea when yeas outnumbered or tied nays) and counted how often each member voted with it. A member who was absent or didn't vote on a roll call isn't counted for it. Unanimous votes, the other 1,131, are left out, because everyone agreed.
This is a measure of agreement with the Council's majority, not with the Mayor. The majority is not always on the Mayor's side: it rejected one of his appointments in 2024 and passed four ordinances he later vetoed. The script, `tools/on-my-block/stories/s4_outliers.py`, recomputes every member's figure; all 50 match the figures on our ward pages.
Who else breaks from the majority?
Nine alderpersons voted with the winning side less than 80% of the time on divided roll calls:
- Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward), 47.3% (44 of 93)
- Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward), 71.7% (66 of 92)
- Ald. James Gardiner (45th Ward), 72.8% (67 of 92)
- Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward), 74.7% (68 of 91)
- Ald. Marty Quinn (13th Ward), 75.3% (70 of 93)
- Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd Ward), 77.2% (71 of 92)
- Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), 77.5% (69 of 89)
- Ald. Felix Cardona Jr. (31st Ward), 79.1% (72 of 91)
- Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st Ward), 79.6% (74 of 93)
At the other end, 19 members were with the winning side at least 90% of the time. Ald. Emma Mitts (37th Ward) was with it on all 80 divided roll calls she voted on. Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) was at 98.9% (86 of 87), Ald. Michelle Harris (8th Ward) at 97.8% (91 of 93), Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward) at 97.7% (86 of 88) and Ald. Gregory Mitchell (7th Ward) at 96.7% (87 of 90).
Alderpersons who vote with the winning side least often on divided roll calls
Source: Our records · as of Oct 21, 2026
Share of divided final roll calls this term on which the member voted with the side that carried. Source: City Clerk roll calls.
What does Lopez vote against?
Lopez cast 47 no votes this term. Of his 21 lone no votes:
- 17 were on legislation filed by Mayor Brandon Johnson;
- 11 were on agreements, including redevelopment agreements and intergovernmental agreements;
- 9 involved tax increment financing (TIF), among them three agreements with the Chicago Board of Education on Oct. 9, 2024 to allocate TIF funds, and four agreements with the Chicago Park District and the Board of Education on March 18, 2026;
- the others included a Class 6(b) tax incentive for a property at 501 N. Sacramento Blvd., a water revenue bond refunding, and the historical landmark designation of the St. Adalbert Parish Complex on West 17th Street.
He was also on the losing side 49 times in all, including when he voted yes on measures that failed.
Lopez is not absent from the votes he loses: he was present for every roll call this term, one of 29 members with no recorded absences.
Who else casts lone no votes?
The 44 single-dissent roll calls were spread among 17 members. After Lopez, Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) cast four: on an ordinance letting alderpersons propose up to four honorary street names, on replacing churches with places of worship in the rules for noise-sensitive zones, on license requirements and exemptions for public places of amusement and sidewalk cafes, and on an amendment to the 2022 ordinance for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency loan for the water system. Beale and Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) cast three each. Thirteen members cast one each, among them Ald. Maria Hadden (49th Ward), the only no vote on the Foundry Park redevelopment agreement on Sept. 23, 2026, and Ald. Byron Sigcho-López (25th Ward), the only no on a revised Roosevelt/Clark redevelopment agreement on July 15, 2026.
What the numbers don't show
A no vote can mean many things: opposition to a project, to how it's paid for, to the process, or a protest. The roll call doesn't say which. Lopez's reasons, when he gave them on the floor, are in the City's meeting videos. His votes are listed on his ward page.
What it means on your block
If you live in the 15th Ward, your alderperson is the Council's most frequent dissenter, and the vote on your behalf is often a no on deals that pass anyway. If you live elsewhere, your ward page shows every divided vote and where your alderperson landed: start from the wards list.