Election season in Chicago may officially be over, but results from the municipal runoff elections will not be official until April 18, which marks two weeks after the elections were held.
The delay in results being made official is to allow the counting of outstanding mail-in ballots, predominantly those that were turned in on Election Day and therefore, were not included in election night totals.
A contributing factor to projections calling the mayoral race in favor of Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson on Tuesday night was his strong performance in mail-in voting in the February elections.
After the first significant vote totals from mail-in ballots were updated, it appears Johnson continued that strength in the runoff.
Heading into Thursday, the latest totals showed Johnson with 287,551 votes to former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas' 271,443 votes.
Updates published by the Chicago Board of Elections on Thursday showed that Johnson slightly expanded his lead to just under 17,000 votes, leading with 293,442 votes over Vallas' 276,460 votes.
Mail-in ballots will continue to be counted before results are certified on April 18, with decisions on the over 2,000 provisional ballots cast also required by that day.
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