There will be two names on the ballot next month for City Clerk in Evanston.
Stephanie Mendoza, director of community outreach for Evanston Latinos, was the only person listed on the primary ballot for that office. She received 7,567 votes and overwhelmingly came in first.
There were also six write-in candidates, and one of them, retired ATF agent Cynthia Beebe, got 1,071 votes.
Under Evanston’s non-partisan system, a write-in candidate in a citywide primary needs to receive 5% of the total vote cast in the last election. In Beebe’s case, that was 922, which she easily surpassed.
The other write-ins had a total of 1,251 votes combined, with none reaching 922.
In an emailed statement to Evanston Now, Beebe thanked her supporters as well as the three other write-ins who ran active campaigns. Beebe said she looks forward to the April 6 election and “remains committed to her goal of leading a city clerk’s office that is a professional, welcoming place that serves all of Evanston’s residents, officials and staff.”
There is still a chance the final numbers will change, not by enough to impact the City Clerk’s race, but possibly two contests for alderman. That’s because ballots postmarked by the Feb. 23 Election Day will be counted if they arrive within two weeks of that date.
In the three-person primary for 8th ward alderman, incumbent Ann Rainey is in third by only 18 votes. And in the 4th ward, incumbent Don Wilson is also in third, by 53 votes. So there is at least a chance for late arriving mail ballots to play a role. The top two vote-getters run in April.
The Cook County Clerk’s Office, which counts the votes, says as of Primary Election Day, there were 4,507 mail ballots requested, and as of Wednesday morning March 3, 3,460 have been returned and included. This does not mean all of the remaining mail ballots will actually be sent back, only that they were requested.
Final results will be certified by March 16.