The legal fights officially begin Monday over who’ll be on the ballot during the upcoming Chicago election, when the city’s board of elections will meet to consider objections to candidates’ paperwork.

These are initial hearings, which means for the most part the board will just be divying cases up to other election officials who’ll take care of the grunt work. What follows is a labor-intensive effort to determine which names get printed on the ballot.

More than 400 objections were filed, including some targeting 11 of the 20 candidates for mayor. And just because a candidate avoided an objection does not mean they’re home free.

The board of elections could vote to remove a candidate from the ballot if his or her paperwork blatantly fails to meet the legal requirements - for example, if a candidate never filed a Statement of Economic Interest, or if the candidate obviously turned in fewer than the required number of signatures from registered voters.

The board meets at 9 a.m. Monday at its downtown office.