Challenges to candidates running for a seat on Chicago’s first elected school board were released Tuesday and more than half received objections to their nominations.
Of the 47 candidates vying for a school board seat across 10 districts, 27 received objections to their nominations. The 1st District was the only district in which no candidates received objections.
In the 3rd and 7th districts, all candidates received at least one objection. In the contested 6th and 10th districts, all but one candidate in each district received objections.
Most objections are about signatures, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. Elections staff checked that candidates had gathered at least 1,000 signatures when they filed their nomination papers, but did not check the validity of those signatures.
Tanya Morris and Brandon McGill-Ware, for instance, objected to all seven of District 10’s candidates in a joint objection filed Monday. The pair claimed that nomination papers for the candidates didn’t meet the required 1,000 collected signatures. They also claimed that the papers contained names of unregistered voters or, in some cases, that the signatures were forged.
According to the Board of Elections, the election board will consider the objections and schedule hearings for all candidates who have received objections. Candidates’ hearings are expected to begin July 8 and extend into early August.
Candidates who receive objections will be assigned a hearing date and hearing officer. The hearing officer will make a recommendation about the candidate’s eligibility, which the Chicago electoral board will officially decide on. After the decision, candidates can appeal.
The ballot is expected to be finalized by Aug. 29 because of early voting and vote-by-mail deadlines, according to the election board. Still, candidates who successfully appeal their objections may be added back to the ballot after that date.
The requirements for getting on the ballot included collecting 1,000 to 3,000 valid signatures from residents in their district and filing paperwork with the Chicago Board of Elections, according to officials. To be eligible to run, candidates must also be U.S. citizens over 18, registered voters, not be registered child sex offenders and have lived in their district for at least one year, according to rules posted by the Chicago Board of Education and election board.
The deadline to file an objection was 5 p.m. Monday. Objections filed by residents of the candidate’s district state that the candidate has not met one or more of these requirements.
The election board released the objections Tuesday, a day later than expected.
The election board released the results of the ballot placement lottery for the elected school board candidates on Monday.
Candidates who lined up to submit their nomination papers before 9 a.m. on June 17 were placed in a lottery for the top spot on their district’s ballot, and candidates who lined up between 4 and 5 p.m. on June 24 to submit their nomination papers were entered into a lottery for the last spot on the ballot. A full list of the ballot placement by district can be found here.
The objections are the latest development in Chicago’s first school board race. Voters will choose a board member from each of the 10 districts. Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint an additional 11 board members, including the board president, for a total of 21 members. In 2026, all school board members will be elected.
Voters will select their district’s school board member in the Nov. 5 general election. Voting by mail applications will open Aug. 7, and early voting will begin Sept. 26.
Candidates are fundraising and must disclose their contributions by July 15. Several candidates are expected to participate in a discussion of their platforms July 10, hosted by education nonprofit Raise Your Hand Illinois.
If all objections are successful, the school board race could narrow to as few as 20 candidates, leaving the 3rd and 7th districts with no candidates on the ballot and the 6th and 10th candidates with only one.