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The makeup of Chicago’s next school board is coming into clearer focus.
Two of the three races that were too close to call on Election Night have been settled, according to The Associated Press. Therese Boyle, a former teacher, prevailed over three other candidates in District 9. Che “Rhymefest” Smith, an artist and activist, won a four-way race in District 10. Both candidates were leading their races Tuesday night.
Still to be officially called is the contest in District 1, where Jennifer Custer was holding her lead over Michelle Pierre as the final ballots were being counted.
Meanwhile, one of the District 10 candidates trailing in the race said she has retained a lawyer after the disclosure that some voters were given ballots with the wrong candidates — a problem that an election official said Tuesday was quickly remedied.
Citywide, 54,150 mail-in ballots and about 5,760 provisional ballots remain to be counted over the weekend, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.
Barring a reversal in District 1 results, four teachers union-backed candidates, three pro-school choice candidates, and three independent candidates will have prevailed in the city’s historic first school board election. The winners will join 11 other board members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Custer was the Chicago Teachers Union-endorsed candidate in District 1, while Boyle and Smith positioned themselves as independent candidates.
A spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections said on Tuesday that voters in a number of precincts were given ballots with the wrong school board district candidates. That happened because the new school board district boundaries do not follow ward and precinct lines, the spokesman, Max Bever said at the time. He said he believed the issue was addressed fairly quickly, and the board did not know how many voters experienced it.
Bever did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Karin Norington-Reaves, the District 10 candidate who finished second behind Smith, said she is not conceding and is considering legal steps. She said all mail-in and early ballots must be counted and she argued Thursday that voters receiving ballots for the wrong school district denied them the opportunity to participate in the city’s first school board election. She said she has retained a lawyer.
“This isn’t about sour grapes,” she said. “When it’s this close, and we have this many uncounted ballots and this many irregularities, I’m not conceding.”
Norington-Reaves said she started receiving calls and texts on Tuesday morning from supporters who had been handed ballots with the candidates in the District 9 race. She said reached out to the Board of Elections about the issues around 10 a.m. that day but in at least one precinct, it took until almost 1 pm before the correct ballots were provided to voters. She blamed insufficient preparation and training for election judges for the issues.
“A significant number of voters were disenfranchised,” she said. “This is what happens when you come up with these arbitrary configurations that aren’t tied to existing boundaries.”
State lawmakers drew the new school board district boundaries after much back-and-forth and three revisions in March, roughly three years after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law that cleared the way for an elected school board in Chicago and just six months before the election.
Michelle Pierre, who is trailing in the District 1 race that has not been called yet, said she called her opponent, Jennifer Custer, to concede the race on Wednesday.
“I wanted to be respectful of Jennifer and of this race,” she said. “Deep down inside, Lord knows I’d love for the race to turn my way. At this point, I don’t see that happening.”
Pierre said she also heard from some supporters that they received the wrong ballot, but she doesn’t know how widespread the issue was or how it might have affected the District 1 outcome.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
