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Jackie Goldberg and Heather Repenning will compete in a May 14, 2019, runoff election for the District 5 seat on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education, according to certified election results from a March 5 special election. The runoff will take place because no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.

 

On March 5, Goldberg finished first, receiving 48.2 percent of the vote. Repenning was second with 13.1 percent. Repenning defeated Grace Ortiz for the second-place spot by 31 votes.

 

The election was necessary to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Ref Rodriguez.

 

School board elections in the district in 2017 flipped the board from a 4-3 majority of members supported by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) to a 4-3 majority of members supported by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). Rodriguez was a member of the latter group, and his resignation left a 3-3 split.

 

CCSA did not endorse in the March 5 race. The UTLA backed Goldberg.

 

Goldberg and Repenning have said they support holding charter schools to the same standards as public schools, among other positions.

 

LAUSD is the largest school district in California and the second-largest in the nation by enrollment. The district had 224 independently operated charter schools in 2017, more than any other school district in the U.S.

 

A special election for the District 3 seat on the Atlanta City Council in Georgia took place on March 19, 2019.

 

Nine candidates appeared on the ballot. Results were certified on March 22, showing Byron Amos and Antonio Brown as the top two vote recipients. Third-place finisher Greg Clay finished three votes behind Brown, 293 to 296, which allows him to request a recount. Following the recount, the top two candidates will advance to a runoff election scheduled for April 16, 2019.

 

Amos previously served on the Atlanta school board from 2011 to 2019. Brown is the CEO of LVL XIII, a men’s clothing business.

 

The special election was triggered after the former incumbent, Ivory Lee Young Jr., passed away in November 2018. Young had been a member of the city council since 2002.

 

The Atlanta City Council is made up of 16 members, including a council president. Twelve members are elected by the city’s 12 districts, while three other members and the council president are elected at large.

 

Delishia Porterfield defeated Nicola La Mattina to win the Nashville Metro Council’s District 29 seat in a special runoff election on March 19, 2019, by 25 votes. Porterfield received 561 votes compared to La Mattina’s 536, according to unofficial election night totals.

 

The two candidates had advanced from a four-candidate field in the special general election on February 12. In that race, Porterfield had led the field with 402 votes to La Mattina’s 376. The other two candidates, Constance Smith-Burwell and Vicky Tataryn, received 74 and 58 votes, respectively. The special election was called after Karen Johnson, the former District 29 council member, won election in November 2018 to become the new Davidson County Register of Deeds.

 

The District 29 seat is also up for regular election in 2019, along with all 40 other seats on the Metro Council as well as the mayor’s office. The filing deadline is May 16, the general election is August 1, and a runoff election may be held on a currently unknown date in September if no candidate receives a simple majority of the general election vote. Mayor David Briley was first elected to the office in a May 2018 special election; he announced his plan to run for a full term in September 2018.

 

Nashville is the second-largest city in Tennessee and the 24th-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Mayor Lenny Curry (R) won re-election to his second term on March 19 defeating two Republicans and an independent. He received 58 percent of the vote, defeating Republican Councilwoman Anna Brosche (24 percent), unaffiliated candidate Omega Allen (11 percent), and former Atlantic Beach City Councilman Jimmy Hill (8 percent). No Democratic candidate filed to run in the race, but the Duval County Democratic Party approved a resolution opposing Curry’s re-election. Curry’s new term will last four years, and the next election will take place in 2023.

 

Twenty-six of the 100 largest cities by population will be holding mayoral elections in 2019. Of those, five (Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Dallas) are among the 10 largest cities. Democrats currently hold the mayor’s office in 18 of the cities with elections this year, while Republicans and independents hold four each.

Five of the 19 city council seats in Jacksonville, Florida, are headed to a runoff election on May 14 after no candidate received a majority of the votes cast in the March 19 general election. Two of the runoff races feature incumbents. At-large Position 3 incumbent Tommy Hazouri (D) is competing against Greg Rachal (R), and District 8 incumbent Ju’Coby Pittman (D) is competing against Tameka Gaines Holly (D). The runoff elections for the At-large Position 1 seat and the District 14 seat each include one Democrat and one Republican, while the runoff election for the District 10 seat includes two Democrats.

 

The other nine incumbents on the ballot—six Republicans and three Democrats—won re-election outright on March 19. The five open seats that did not go to a runoff were all won by Republicans. The Jacksonville City Council is guaranteed to have at least 11 Republicans and five Democrats after the runoff elections. Currently, it has a Republican majority of 13-6.

 

The city also held elections for mayor, property appraiser, sheriff, supervisor of elections, and tax collector on March 19. All five Republican incumbents won re-election outright to those offices, including Mayor Lenny Curry. Curry faced no Democratic opponents in his re-election bid.

 

Jacksonville is the largest city in Florida and the 13th-largest city in the U.S. by population.

Candidates for Denver mayor and city council had to file by Thursday, March 14, in order to make the ballot for the general election on May 7, 2019. In races where no candidate wins a majority of the vote, a runoff election will be held on June 4, 2019.

 

Denver’s current mayor, Michael Hancock, is seeking a third term in office. Hancock became mayor in 2011 after serving on the Denver City Council from 2004-2011. Hancock is running alongside five other candidates in the nonpartisan race: Lisa Calderón, Stephan Evans, Jamie Giellis, Kalyn Heffernan, and Penfield Tate.

 

Mayors in Denver serve four-year terms and can serve up to three terms (12 years) in office. As the city’s chief executive, the mayor is responsible for proposing a budget, signing legislation into law, appointing departmental directors, and overseeing the city’s day-to-day operations.

 

Denver uses a strong mayor-council form of government, meaning that the mayor is the city’s chief executive while the council is the city’s primary legislative body. Of the largest 100 cities in the country, 47 use a strong mayor system, 46 use a council-manager system, six use hybrid systems, and one uses a city commission.

 

Citizens in Denver will also cast votes for city auditor, city clerk and recorder, and 13 seats on the Denver City Council.

 

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Chicago voters have the opportunity to cast ballots in the second mayoral runoff election in the city’s history on April 2.

 

This year’s mayoral runoff features former Chicago Police Board President Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle. The two advanced from a 14-candidate field—the largest in the city’s history—by winning more votes than the other candidates on Feb. 26.

 

The first mayoral runoff took place in 2015. Runoffs first became possible in the 1999 election, after a state law changed mayoral elections in Chicago from partisan to nonpartisan. Prior to that, partisan primaries were held ahead of general elections. Now, candidates must receive more than 50 percent of the vote to win in the general election. Otherwise, the top two finishers go to a runoff.

 

Along with being the city’s second runoff election for mayor, the 2019 race is the fourth open-seat mayoral race in 100 years. Incumbent Rahm Emanuel did not seek re-election. He won his first term in 2011’s open-seat race.

 

Voters who don’t want to wait until April 2 to cast their ballots can vote early in person or by mail. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners website has early voting locations and hours as well as instructions and deadlines for applying to vote by mail. One may also register to vote through election day.

 

See Ballotpedia’s coverage of the 2019 mayoral election for information about the candidates and key issues in the race.

On March 12, 2019, an effort in Fall River, Massachusetts, to recall Mayor Jasiel Correia II was approved. However, on the same night, Correia was also elected to serve as mayor of the city again.

 

According to The Herald News, Correia qualified to run as a candidate to be mayor in case the recall vote was successful. On the first portion of the ballot, Correia was recalled with 7,829 votes cast in favor of the recall and 4,911 votes cast in opposition to the recall. The second portion of the ballot allowed voters to choose who should serve as mayor if the recall vote succeeded. Correia received more votes than his four opponents and will retain his position. He won by a plurality with 4,808 (35.4%) of the total votes cast. Runner-up Paul Coogan received 4,567 votes (33.6%), Joe Camara won 1,971 votes (14.5%), Kyle Riley won 1,460 votes (10.8%), and Erica Scott-Pacheo won 740 votes (5.5%).

 

Petitioners began the recall process after Correia was arrested on October 11, 2018, on 13 charges of wire and tax fraud related to his company SnoOwl. In a press conference following the indictment, Correia said he was innocent of the charges and that he would not resign from office. He said the voters of Fall River should let him continue to serve or recall him.

 

An effort in Elk River, Idaho, to recall Mayor Dave Brown was defeated on March 12, 2019, with 44 votes cast to retain the mayor and 21 votes cast to recall the mayor. According to The Lewiston Tribune, there are 81 registered voters in Elk River, meaning the recall election saw an 80.2 percent voter turnout.

 

The recall effort was initiated in February 2019 after recall supporters accused the mayor of public drunkenness, misuse of city equipment, failing to respond to public safety issues, and discouraging law enforcement presence in Elk River. Brown responded to the recall petition by saying he believed the complaints in the petition stemmed from the all-terrain vehicle fun runs the town hosts twice per year. He said he was innocent of the charges.