CHICAGO — Polls are closed in Chicago and now, ballots are being counted.
But the question arises: Will the Chicago mayor’s race be called Tuesday night?
The Associated Press called the election for Brandon Johnson just after 9:30 pm. Tuesday night.
According to the Chicago Board of Elections, 530,382 total ballots have been cast as of 7 p.m. Tuesday. Chicago has 1,597,901 registered voters, but Tuesday’s election saw only a 33% total citywide turnout.
Mail-in ballots that were submitted on Election Day will not be counted until Wednesday. There’s no way to know how many of those vote by mail ballots were returned Tuesday and not yet counted. As of Monday night, 91,000 people who had requested vote by mail ballots hadn’t yet returned them; however many people requests ballots but don’t actually vote.
Final election results will not be officially certified until April 18, two weeks after election day.
Johnson and Vallas both advanced into the Chicago runoff following the Feb. 27 election. During the February election, Vallas received 33% of the votes compared to Johnson’s near 22%.
Both candidates went head to head in multiple debates and forums since the February election, including the WGN’s Chicago Mayor Debate on March 21.
Ahead of the April 4 election, a WGN-TV/Emerson College/The Hill poll showed Paul Vallas held a five-point lead over Brandon Johnson, 46% to 41%.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Stay up to date with the latest Election Results here.