Chicago, a city that keeps finding itself in the news over the past week, is apparently ready for another encore. This time the narrative has circled back to Windy City politics and has a record field of 14 people who hope to become its mayor.
Voters are reporting to the polls today to pick from the group of candidates all vying to replace eight-year incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who left the Barack Obama White House to lead his hometown. Because of the high number of candidates, there’s a high probability that none of the candidates would win more than half of the vote, according to the Chicago Tribune. If that happens, the top two contenders will compete in a runoff on April 2, the paper says.
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“Chicago has never had an election like this,” Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, told the Tribune. “And we may never see one like it again.”
The field is the largest ever in the city’s 181-year history, Jim Allen, the city’s election board spokesman, confirmed for the news organization. Before today, the record was made in 1897, when there were eight candidates.
Emanuel announced last September that he would not be seeking reelection, leaving the election with no incumbent for only the fourth time in the last 100 years.
The candidates were going all out to outdo one another on Tuesday. Former prosecutor Lori Lightfoot snapped selfies with voters at a public transportation stop, Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas met with union musicians and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Bill Daley picked up pastries to give to volunteers, the Tribune reported.
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Early voting was showing higher numbers this year, according to the Tribune. About 125,600 Chicagoans took part in early voting this year compared to 89,869 four years ago, the Tribune reported.
But the paper pointed to the fact that today’s bitter temperatures in the twenties is lower than normal and could affect turnout.
“We’ve had warmer election days to be sure – but it could be a whole lot worse,” Tom Skilling, meteorologist for WGN, told the Tribune.
Despite the high number of candidates, there was low turnout to the polls. CBS Chicago reported only 297,000 votes had been cast citywide by 12:45 on Tuesday, about half of those through early voting over the past two weeks.