After a contentious sprint to the finish line, Chicagoans are set to elect either former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas or Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson to be the 57th mayor of Chicago.
While the results of the mayoral election's first round were determined hours after the polls closing, Tuesday's election is shaping up to be a very close two-way race that could be swayed by mail-in ballots counted after Election Day.
Early voting and mail-in voting have taken on a new level of prevalence in Chicago's 2023 elections, highlighted by voters setting an all-time single-day early voting record on Monday.
According to the Chicago Board of Elections, 184,723 Chicagoans cast their ballots prior to Election Day, with a total of 107,868 mail-in ballots returned so far.
In addition to the mail-in ballots submitted prior to Election Day, 91,838 mail-in ballots have yet to be returned.
Officials will not begin to count any mail-in ballots received on Election Day until Wednesday, leaving a degree of uncertainty over when results may be available after polls close at 7 p.m.
While results from the Chicago Board of Elections typically start to be reported within 30 minutes of polls closing, a tight margin from Tuesday night's returns will likely lead to no projection being made on the results.
From there, final election results are certified two weeks after the date of the election, meaning final results from this mayoral election will be certified on April 18.
In the first round of this year's elections, a total of 566,973 ballots were cast, though there were just a total of 564,524 votes cast in the mayoral election.
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As of 5 p.m. on Election Day, 476,358 ballots had been cast for this year's municipal runoff elections, marking a current turnout of 29.8% of the city's 1,596,151 registered voters.
Once polls close at 7 p.m., results can be tracked live as they come in on NBC 5's website here.
