March 04--The runner-up to Ald. Deb Mell in the Feb. 24 election filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging widespread problems with voting in the Northwest Side 33rd Ward aldermanic race as he tries to force her into a head-to-head runoff five weeks from now.
Candidate Tim Meegan is trying to get Mell below the 50-percent-plus-one-vote total she needs to maintain to avoid facing him in an April 7 runoff. His election contest petition, filed Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court, claimed voters from outside the ward cast ballots in the race, that people who weren't registered voted and that ballots were cast from addresses of businesses rather than residences.
It also alleged Mell supporters improperly influenced visually impaired voters in the polling places, and cited various alleged problems with the handling and delivery of absentee ballots. Tuesday was the deadline to file such a challenge, even though absentee ballots are still being received and the results of the election are not final.
Meegan is seeking a full recount before April 7.
Mell's campaign could not be reached for comment about Meegan's contest petition. Meegan's attorney could not be reached for comment.
When the polls closed Feb. 24, the two appeared on their way to a runoff election, with Mell at 49.59 percent of the vote as she tried to hold onto the seat Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to fill when her father, ward boss Richard Mell, retired in 2013. The Chicago Teachers Union and other supporters of Meegan's candidacy celebrated that they prevented Mell from claiming an outright victory, saying it was a win for progressives over machine politics.
Under city election rules, if nobody gets 50 percent plus one vote, the top two vote-getters face off.
But then late absentee ballots began arriving at the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, with the vast majority of those votes going to Mell.
Elections officials announced Tuesday that Mell had picked up 160 votes from absentee ballots that came in after election day. That pushed her to 4,092 votes, 50.17 percent of the total cast in the 33rd Ward race.
The results aren't final. Any absentee ballots that arrive at the elections board by March 10 with a postmark of Feb. 23 or earlier will be counted. And election officials still have to count provisional ballots.
Meegan now has 34.04 percent of the vote.
Following Tuesday's election, there are runoff contests in 18 other wards.
In the 25th Ward, where Ald. Danny Solis so far has avoided a runoff with 50.95 percent of the vote against four challengers, second place candidate Byron Sigcho announced Tuesday that he, too, had filed an election challenge. Solis has a 70-vote cushion to avoid being pushed under 50 percent and into a runoff against Sigcho.
jebyrne@tribpub.com
