Missing Election Day results holding up race calls in two Chicago School Board districts

The Chicago Board of Election is still counting votes — a delay that is leaving the fate of two school board races hanging in the balance.

Votes cast on Tuesday from almost every city precinct have been reported by the election board, including ballots from 44.6% of registered voters, or 686,000 Chicagoans.

But as of Thursday evening, 12 of 1291 precincts had not been counted, down from 50 on Wednesday.

The board counted an additional 12,000 votes on Thursday, WBEZ’s analysis showed. There are 3,000 ballots from Election Day left to be counted, according to the board, and 131,131 uncounted votes in total, including mail-in ballots. More than 4,000 provisional ballots also remain to be tabulated.

When asked by WBEZ why delays in counting ballots from Election Day were occurring, a board spokesperson said there are “ongoing transmissions to our central data intake and tabulating system.”

This snafu means the outcomes of races for school board districts 5b and 7a are, for now, still too close to call. Two districts, 3b, on the Near Northwest Side, and, 6a covering Downtown and the Near North Side, also haven’t been called, though all precincts have reported results. In both districts, less than 240 votes separate the top two vote-getters.

As of Thursday afternoon, Jason Dónes was leading his opponent Carlos Rivas Jr in the District 3b race, but it was only by 127 votes. Votes in four of 74 precincts in the district hadn’t been counted, and those encompassed just over 4,000 registered voters.

With the data released by the board on Thursday evening, Dónes increased his edge by just 53 votes.

“We’re in the lead — we’re not chasing, but it is sight,” Dónes said Thursday midday as he took a break from work, which he described as a good distraction. “But call me in 30 minutes, and I might be down. Call again and I might be up … It’s a scary few days. Everyone is lighting a candle.”

Election officials have until Nov. 17 to finish counting mail-in ballots and provisional ballots. Final official results are due on Nov. 24.

In the District 5b race on the West Side, Michilla “Kyla” Blaise has a bigger bit lead over opponent Anthony Hargrove, 1,302 votes. Totals released Thursday evening showed just one precinct left uncounted. Earlier in the day, that district had four precincts left uncounted, with one precinct split between districts 5b and 7a.

It’s not clear if the same issue was impacting every missing precinct. For the precincts in District 5b, the issue was reportedly a discrepancy between a vote count given by an electronic ballot counter and one handwritten by an election judge, according to Blaise.

Blaise’s lawyer indicated to her that the judges were checking the ballots, and was expecting some kind of resolution by Thursday afternoon.

“My assumption is that, you know, those folks are there for like 13 or 14 hours, and somebody filled in a blank wrong,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a crisis, but I appreciate that they’re being thorough.”

Meanwhile, the Board of Elections is assessing a ballot shortage that contributed to long voting lines on Election Day. The issue was due in part to a computer error that miscalculated the number of ballots needed at each polling place, according to a press release from the board Thursday evening. Whether it is impacting the reporting of race results isn’t known and wasn’t indicated.

The board also pointed toward a “significant surge” in same-day voter registrations at polling places — more than 34,000 people, the second-highest totals in the city’s history.

Contributing: Sarah Karp