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On My Block · Chicago Politics

94 people filed for 66 police District Council seats. In the 5th District, two candidates are running for three seats

The Board's filing report shows six districts with exactly as many candidates as seats and one with fewer. Our signature counts are now posted for 41 District Council candidates; on lines filed, all clear their district's minimum.

By Chicago PoliticsUpdated

Ninety-four people filed to run for the 66 elected seats on Chicago's 22 police District Councils, according to the Board of Election Commissioners' candidate filing report, printed after filing closed Monday. One candidate, in the 2nd District, appears twice, for 95 filings in all.

Why it matters: District Councils are the elected neighborhood piece of Chicago's police oversight system. Three members per district hold monthly public meetings on safety in the district, work with district police leaders and advise the citywide oversight commission, according to the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. Members get a $500 monthly stipend. In districts with few candidates, the Feb. 23 vote may already be settled.

This follows our Oct. 27 story, written when our records had three District Council filings.

Where the races are thin

Each district elects three members. The Board's report shows:

  • Fewer candidates than seats: the 5th (Calumet) District, with two: Pauline W. Sylvain and Ponchita Moore.
  • Exactly three for three seats: the 4th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 19th and 24th districts.
  • The most crowded: the 10th, 14th, 17th, 22nd and 25th, with six candidates each, and the 2nd, also with six filings from five people.

If a district ends up with an empty seat, the write-in deadline of Dec. 24 in the Board's calendar is the next chance to fill the ballot.

What our records add

Signature counts against each district's minimum. District Council minimums vary by district, from 70 in the 7th to 250 in many others, under the Board's 2027 pamphlet. Our District Council page now has our count of filled-in signature lines for 41 candidates in 11 districts. That is not the Board's count of valid signatures, which it makes only if someone objects.

On lines filed, every one of those 41 is above the minimum for their district. The closest margins:

The largest counts are in the 2nd, where Dartavous Dorsey turned in 993 lines, about five times the minimum; the 19th, where three candidates each show 1,147; and the 25th, where three show 1,003.

Shared petitions. In several districts, three candidates share a single filing number on the Board's report and, where we have counted them, identical page and line counts on our pages: the 19th, 20th, 24th and 25th among them. That is consistent with candidates running together on the same petition sheets.

Not yet counted. Two 17th District candidates are on our page without a count yet, and the other 51 people on the Board's report are not on our page. Ten districts, from the 6th to the 18th, have no candidates on our page at all, though the Board's report shows filings in every one.

What's next

  • Nov. 2: objections due at the Board's office, 69 W. Washington St., Suite 800, the Board said.
  • Dec. 17: ballot certified.
  • Dec. 24: write-in deadline.
  • Nov. 10: the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability appears at the Council's budget hearings, according to the hearing schedule.