Polls have officially closed in Chicago, where incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot is among a field of eight candidates hoping to lead the Windy City. At the time of this writing, Paul Vallas, a former head of schools in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, leads the pack with 34.6% of the vote (see below for the current tally). Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson is in second, with 20.23%, and Lori Lightfoot is in third, with 16.58%.
If no candidate reaches the 50% threshold, which appears the be the case in this election, the top two will advance to a runoff election on April 4. There is a slight chance that Lightfoot could pull out a win—mail-in ballots postmarked by Feb. 28 and received at the Board of Elections by March 14 will be counted. She would need to make up an 18,000-vote deficit, which seems unlikely. Then again, this is Chicago, the city that practically invented voter fraud, so never say never.
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