A week after Election Day, four school board races are still unresolved. Counting runs through Nov. 17
The latest published figures are days old, and the Board of Elections' site remains unreachable to us. Here's where the close races stood, by source and time, and the dates that settle them.
Chicago's first fully elected school board still has four seats in doubt a week after Election Day: districts 3b, 5b, 6a and 7a. No news outlet had called any of them as of Monday, Borderless Magazine reported, and we aren't calling them either.
Why it matters: the 21-member board will make the next CPS budget and decide questions like school closings. The four seats will decide how large a bloc candidates backed by the Chicago Teachers Union hold, Borderless reported. Jessica Biggs won the citywide race for board president, as we reported.
This follows our Nov. 5 story on Thursday morning's numbers.
Where the races stood
All results are unofficial. These are the most recent figures we could confirm, with their source and time:
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- 3b (Near Northwest Side): Jason Dónes led incumbent Carlos Rivas Jr. by about 180 votes as of Thursday evening, Nov. 5, after leading by 127 that afternoon, the Sun-Times and WBEZ reported. All precincts had reported.
- 6a (Downtown and Near North Side): the top two were separated by fewer than 240 votes with all precincts in, as of Thursday evening, Nov. 5, per the Sun-Times and WBEZ. Isaiah White led.
- 5b (West Side): incumbent Michilla "Kyla" Blaise led Anthony Hargrove by 1,302 votes, with one precinct left uncounted as of Thursday evening, Nov. 5. Blaise said the holdup was a mismatch between a ballot counter's tally and an election judge's hand count, per the Sun-Times and WBEZ.
- 7a (Southwest Side): Emma Lozano led Jesus Ayala Jr., per Borderless on Nov. 9, which listed the race as still too close to call. We could not confirm a current margin.
How many votes are left
As of Thursday evening, Nov. 5, 12 of the city's 1,291 precincts had not reported, down from 50 on Wednesday, the Sun-Times and WBEZ reported. Citywide, 131,131 votes were uncounted, including mail ballots, plus more than 4,000 provisional ballots. A Board spokesperson blamed "ongoing transmissions" to its central tabulating system.
Mail ballots count if they were postmarked by Election Day or dropped in an official drop box by the close of polls.
The dates that settle it
- Nov. 17: the last day for the Board to count mail and provisional ballots.
- Nov. 24: official results are due.
Turnout
Turnout was about 45%, about the same as the 2022 midterm, Block Club Chicago reported from Monday's Council hearing. The Board's director told members about 40,000 people registered on Election Day; the Sun-Times had reported more than 34,000 last week. More than 568,000 votes were cast in the president's race, Borderless reported.
A note on our sources
We tried the Board of Elections' results and uncounted-ballot pages at 9:35 a.m. Tuesday; both returned an access error, as the Board's site has for us since Nov. 2. We'll update this story with the Board's own figures when we can reach them, and when the four races are decided.