Final votes tallied: Sadlowski Garza wins 10th ward race, Pope considering legal challenge

Final votes tallied: Sadlowski Garza wins 10th ward race, Pope considering legal challenge

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It’s been two weeks since Chicago’s runoff election; and as of Tuesday afternoon, every last vote has been counted.

One big story from the final tallies comes out of the 10th Ward on the far southeast side of the city, where Chicago Public Schools counselor and community activist Susan Sadlowski Garza beat longtime incumbent, Ald. John Pope. At the final unofficial count, Sadlowski Garza beat Pope by 20 votes. The Chicago Board of Elections doesn’t issue their official proclamation of the results until Thursday, but elections officials said they don’t anticipate any of these numbers to change before then.

Both Pope and Sadlowski Garza’s campaigns filed complaints with the board, so Pope’s team could still file a legal challenge over the results. His campaign manager Jake Breymaier said they haven’t yet made a decision, one way or the other.

“The fact that both campaigns filed briefs with Board of Elections—we believe that both campaigns want to see a fair outcome with all the votes counted,” he said.

Breymaier added that the Pope team hopes to have a decision by the end of this week.

Meanwhile, some of the other aldermanic runoffs that were close—just not 10th-Ward close—have also been unofficially called. In the 31st Ward, on the Northwest Side, former reporter Milagros “Milly” Santiago ousted long-time incumbent Ray Suarez by 79 votes. Suarez chaired the Committee on Housing and Real Estate.

All of the unofficial results, for every runoff election, can be found at the Chicago Board of Elections website.

Inauguration of the newly-elected council is set to take place on May 18th.

Lauren Chooljian is a WBEZ reporter. Follow her @laurenchooljian