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Ald. Smith Wins in 43rd Ward as Vickrey Concedes

By Paul Biasco | April 14, 2015 3:29pm | Updated on April 14, 2015 3:56pm
 Alderman Michele Smith speaks with supporters at her Election Night party.
Alderman Michele Smith speaks with supporters at her Election Night party.
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DNAinfo/Paul Biasco

LINCOLN PARK — Ald. Michele Smith will be representing the 43rd Ward for another four years.

Smith's challenger Caroline Vickrey conceded the race Tuesday afternoon while trailing by 86 votes.

After months of battling, the race came down to absentee votes, and, as of Tuesday, Vickrey conceded that the margin had grown too wide for her to catch up.

"I'd like to thank Caroline Vickrey for her passion and hard work," Smith said in a statement released late Tuesday. "She has been a committed community member for over twenty years, and she ran a strong campaign. We look forward to working with her for the betterment of our community." 

The vote tallying has been a nail-biter as the lead changed between Smith and Vickrey a number of times since the April 7, the runoff election day.

Absentee ballots had played a factor in the race and swung the vote toward Smith.

With a majority of absentee ballots counted, Smith led Vickrey by 85 votes this week, according to unofficial results, but there are still ballots trickling in.

"We could drag this out for another week, demand a recount and file a formal challenge — and many of you have urged me to do so — but I do not believe this is in the best interest of our ward," Vickrey said in an email to supporters. "For this reason, I am today ending my campaign for alderman of the 43rd Ward."

Vickrey said she receieved reports of "irregularities" on April 6 and 7 from election judges and poll watchers of improper electioneering, improper voting assistance, intimidation and possible fraud.

"People factor these types of things into races and they write it off as being part of the Chicago system, but I don't think that has to be the case," Vickrey said.

A spokeswoman for Smith's campaign said they were unaware of any election problems.

Smith's latest total was 7,194 votes to Vickrey's 7,108 — 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent of the vote.

At the end of in-person and early voting, Vickrey led Smith by six votes.

There was an unofficial total of 3,308 applications for absentee ballots in the 43rd Ward. There were 2,535 ballots returned in the 43rd as of Tuesday.

More than 700 total absentee votes were counted between Election Day and this week, swaying the race by 95 votes in Smith's favor.

Since Saturday the Chicago Board of Elections received only two absentee ballots in the 43rd Ward.

The board's plan is to process the additional ballots on April 21, when the board will also process provisional ballots.

The official winner will not be declared until a day or two after April 21, the last date a mailed-in ballot can arrive to be added to the count.

Neither the Smith nor Vickrey campaign filed a lawsuit contesting the results. The deadline to do so was Monday.

Turnout was high in the ward at 46 percent of 30,874 registered voters, smashing runoff totals in 2011 and 2007. As of this week, 14,302 votes had been cast in the 43rd Ward runoff.

In the 2011 runoff, 9,656 of the 33,483 registered voters cast ballots. In the 2007 runoff, 8,333 of the 34,123 registered voters voted.

Smith won in the 2011 runoff by 250 votes and lost to Vi Daley in the 2007 runoff by 644 votes.

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