Chicago’s first elected school board race shrank again Tuesday, when five more candidates were kicked off the ballot and two others officially withdrew from the race following decisions by the Chicago Board of Elections.
Tuesday’s moves, in which the Board of Elections ruled on recommendations made by candidates’ hearing officers to remove them from or keep them on the ballot, further narrowed the field to 35 candidates. The race formerly had 47 school board hopefuls.
The majority of the objections concerned the number of valid signatures candidates had obtained, which had to be between 1,000 and 3,000.
Three of the five candidates removed from the ballot — Jousef Shkoukani, Anthony Hargrove and Kernetha Jones — are from the 5th District, which includes parts of the West and Near West sides.
Hargrove and Shkoukani were removed from the ballot over an insufficient number of signatures, while the board ruled Jones’s candidacy was invalid because she failed to timely file a statement of her economic interests with the Cook County clerk’s office.
“I don’t think that the process was made out to be what they said it would be, like an easy process for parents,” Hargrove said. “It doesn’t give the voters a lot of scope.”
Tuesday’s board decisions leave just two candidates — Michilla “Kyla” Blaise and Aaron “Jitu” Brown — for the 5th District seat.
Jesus Ayala Jr. from the 7th District and Nathaniel Ward from the 10th also lost their spots on the ballot. Both were found to have insufficient signatures and were officially removed at Tuesday’s election board meeting.
Objections were filed up until July 1, a week after the deadline for candidates to file nomination papers. Since then, candidates who faced objections have gone through hearings and the examination of their signature sheets in order to determine whether they can remain on the ballot.
The Board of Elections’ decisions are final unless a candidate appeals. Appeals would go to the Cook County Circuit Court.
Five candidates who previously had objections filed against them now have a confirmed place on the ballot.
Carlos Rivas Jr. of the 3rd District, Yesenia Lopez of the 7th District and Karin Norington-Reaves of the 10th District were all found to have 1,000 or more valid signatures and will remain on the ballot. Objections against Robert Jones and Che “Rhymefest” Smith, both from the 10thwere withdrawn by the objectors, ensuring they will retain their spots on the ballot.
Including decisions made at the electoral board’s July 26 meeting, objection hearings have removed seven candidates from their respective ballots across the 10 districts.
Five others have withdrawn their nominations amid the hearings. Nine who faced objections will remain on the ballot, either because they were found to have a sufficient number of signatures or because objections were withdrawn or dismissed.
The status of six candidates remian uncertain, and their objections will be decided by the Board of Elections soon, although the date of the hearing is not set, according to Max Bever, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections. Those candidates are: Bruce Leon of the 2nd District, Kirk Ortiz of the 3rd District, Jason Dones of the 3rd District, Andre Smith of the 6th District, Raquel Don of the 7th District and Brittany Bailey Preston of the 9th.
Ballots are expected to be finalized by Aug. 29 due to early voting and vote-by-mail deadlines according to the election board, but candidates who successfully appeal may be added after that date.
But some candidates have chosen a third route to capturing a board seat: running as write-in candidates.
That’s the plan for Rosita Chatonda, a former CTU organizer and 10th District candidate who recently withdrew from the race. Chatonda said she’s disappointed that a number of grassroots candidates have had a difficulty securing the resources needed to fight their objections and remain on the ballot.
“It works against real activists and educators that want to bring something to the table,” Chatonda said. Her campaign did not file any objections, she said. “We thought this would be an opportunity for people who genuinely wanted to get into education.”
Danielle Wallace has also launched a write-in campaign in the 6th District.
“I don’t have thousands of dollars just sitting around on some kind of lawyers,” Wallace said of defending her candidacy during the objection process. “I just think all of that is just insanity. Run a campaign of information and allow the people to decide who they want to represent them.”
Nevertheless, some candidates are already looking toward the next election. Shkoukani, an attorney who represented himself in the objection hearings, said Tuesday he’s unsure if he’ll run as a write-in or try to appeal his case. Despite being frustrated by the process that took him off the ballot, he said he still plans to run again in 2026.
“If you’re somebody who is passionate, is willing to read the rules … and is willing to try their best to represent themselves and their case, I think that it should be really easy or should be very clear (to get on the school board ballot),” Shkoukani said. “I think that goes toward the kind of democracy that we want to live in. Like, the more candidates you have on the ballot, the more options we provide parents. This is the first one. It’s like the bellwether case, and we set precedent here.”
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