LINCOLN PARK — Alderman Michele Smith now leads challenger Caroline Vickrey by 81 votes in the 43rd Ward aldermanic race.
During the second day of absentee ballot counting, Smith gained 43 votes while Vickrey gained 31.
That brings the total to 7,170 for Smith to 7,089.
Vickrey had been leading by just 6 votes before the absentee ballots were counted.
Election judges will be counting additional absentee votes in the next two and began checking the validity of provisional ballots Friday.
The turnout was significantly larger than the February election, which totaled 10,306 votes cast.
As of Thursday, turnout was greater than 46 percent. There were 30,875 registered voters for the runoff.
It is likely the race will be drawn out until April 23 at the latest to include mailed-in ballots.
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