Chicago City Council election results update: The runoffs and the undecided


Last Tuesday, Chicagoans cast ballots for mayor, city treasurer, city clerk, and all 50 seats on the city council. Here’s where the council races stood as of 11 am CT on March 4:
 
There will be at least 13 council runoff elections on April 2, as no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in those wards. Nine of those races include incumbents heading to runoffs, and the other four are open races.
 
Runoffs will take place in:
  • Ward 5
  • Ward 16
  • Ward 20 (open)
  • Ward 21
  • Ward 25 (open)
  • Ward 30
  • Ward 31
  • Ward 33
  • Ward 39 (open)
  • Ward 40
  • Ward 43
  • Ward 46
  • Ward 47 (open)
Races in four of the above wards went to runoffs in both 2011 and 2015: the 16th, 20th, 43rd, and 46th.
 
There were 4 uncalled races in which incumbents were less than 1 percentage point above or below the threshold for avoiding a runoff. Whether incumbents win outright or head to runoffs will hinge on mail-in ballots. The Chicago elections board began the process of counting 13,843 additional ballots on Friday, The Daily Line reported. The board can continue counting mail-in ballots through March 12, so long as they were postmarked by election day (Feb. 26). Results will be certified March 13.
 
The uncalled races are:
  • Ward 6 (incumbent Roderick Sawyer)
  • Ward 12 (incumbent George Cardenas)
  • Ward 15 (incumbent Raymond Lopez)
  • Ward 26 (incumbent Roberto Maldonado)
 
On Tuesday, 3 incumbent aldermen lost their re-election bids:
  • 1st Ward Ald. Joe Moreno
  • 45th Ward Ald. John Arena
  • 49th Ward Ald. Joseph Moore
 
Chicago is the nation’s third-largest city by population. Each alderman represents one of the city’s 50 wards on the council. An average of 54,000 people live in each ward.