Chicago Mayoral Election 2019
b'\\u201cI don\\u2019t think there\\u2019s any mathematical way, looking at the field and the number of candidates, that there wouldn\\u2019t be a runoff,\\u201d political strategist David Axelrod told the Tribune last week. Underscoring the slim possibility of a final decision Tuesday night, he said: \\u201cI mean, meteorologically there\\u2019s a way to get hit by lightning, but that doesn\\u2019t mean it\\u2019s going to happen.\\u201d\\n\\nThe horse rac Axelrod, the architect of former President Barack Obama\\u2019s political rise, said he thinks Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle likely will secure one of the two runoff spots with the backing of two powerful labor groups: the Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees Union International.\\n\\nEarly voting numbers by Friday had reached 74,000 and by Monday were expected to exceed the 89,000 early votes cast in 2015. Vote-by-mail, once known as absentee voting, is up. Of the 63,000 who applied to vote by mail \\u2014 nearly triple the requests made in the last two city elections \\u2014 about 24,000 ballots had been returned.\\n\\nOne clue may come from Chicago\\u2019s voter registration numbers. They\\u2019re slightly up, which may add up to more voters heading to the polls. Right now, the city has 1.58 million registered voters on the rolls, up from 1.4 million in 2011 and 1.42 million in 2015 \\u2014 the last two municipal election years. In 2011, 594,000 voters, or 42 percent of those registered, cast a ballot, while that number dipped to 438,700, or 34 percent of registered voters, in 2015, though the mayoral runoff between incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel and challenger Jesus \\u201cChuy\\u201d Garcia, now a congressman, drew a whopping 600,000 voters.'