World

Chicago Mayor Election: Live Results Coming Soon

by Jordan Yerman | February 22, 2011 at 03:12 pm

4766 views | 2 Recommendations | 1 comment

Chicago Mayoral Election: Rahm Emanuel Poised to Win

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is tipped to become the new Mayor of Chicago, in a hard-fought race between six major candidates. The Chicago mayoral race is an at-large election: the winner needs only 50% of the vote to claim the office vacated by Richard M. Daley, who has served six terms.

Should none of the candidates win an outright 50% majority, then a runoff election between the two frontrunners will take place on April 5. Reports suggest that voter turnout has been very low, and overall voter turnout is predicted at 50%.

Rahm Emanuel's eligibility to stand for the Mayoral office has been in question from the get-go, but he was eventually cleared to run. Now, Emanuel is the favorite, endorsed by the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. His closest competitors are Carol Moseley Braun and Gery Chico, both of whom are confident to at least secure a runoff.

Also on the ballot are Miguel del Valle, Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins and William Walls.

Many precincts reported very light voter turnout, although the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners wouldn't comment on turnout.

But conventional wisdom might not hold true in this election, which turned into a free-for-all after Mayor Richard M. Daley said he would retire after 22 years in office.

"We're in such new territory here with this kind of election that I can't really say the (normal) rule would apply," Rose said. "Everybody's treading on new ground here."

Today's election got under way at 6 a.m. and has run smoothly, aside from a few tales typical of Chicago elections, like one drunk election judge and a pastor who overslept and opened the church polling place late.

On the city's North Side, voter turnout had been so slow in Warren Park that election judges cheered when two voters walked in. Only 71 voters, out of 600 in the 50th-Ward precinct, had voted as of 12:30 p.m.