CHICAGO — With days to go before Chicago’s mayoral election — and a virtual certainty that no one will win the seat outright — candidates are focused on turning out their political bases to secure a spot in the April 4 runoff.
At least five of the nine candidates are seriously vying for the top two spots in Tuesday’s mayor’s race, while others hope to shock the political establishment by breaking through the field, so crowded that it’s highly unlikely anyone will get more than half the vote needed to avoid a runoff.
Early voter turnout, meanwhile, has far surpassed both the 2019 and 2015 municipal elections. More than 178,000 mail-in and in-person ballots had been cast as of Friday. That’s more than double the ballots cast at this time in the 2019 and 2015 cycles.
