Candidate Order Decided in Ballot Position Lottery for the April 6, 2021 Consolidated Election

Date:
Press Release
Elections

Cook County Clerk Karen A. Yarbrough on Monday held a ballot position lottery for school board candidates in the April 6, 2021 Consolidated Election who filed their nominating papers earlier this month at 8 a.m. on the first day of filing or in last hour of the filing period.

Candidates in 83 school board contests filed at 8 a.m. on Dec. 14 and candidates in one contest filed in the last hour on Dec. 21, in an attempt to win the first and last ballot spots.

Rather than conduct a separate lottery for each school district, candidates were put in alphabetical order and assigned a letter, in most cases ranging from A-C. However, a handful of school districts had seven candidates who filed at 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, so each candidate was assigned a letter between A-G.

The letters were each written on a slip of paper and placed in a plastic bottle, which were then put in a fishbowl and shaken by Clerk Yarbrough. The drawing was conducted by Candidate Services Manager, Colleen Gleason who then handed the paper to Clerk Yarbrough to be read aloud.

For the 8 a.m. Dec. 14 filers, the letters were selected in this order: A, E, D, F, G, C, B

For example, if candidates, Lewis, Monroe, Napalitano, Osgood, Prendergast, Quince, Rosyn, and Smith all filed for office for a particular school district at 8 a.m. they would have been assigned letters in alphabetical order of their last names.
A - Lewis
B - Monroe
C - Napalitano
D - Osgood
E - Prendergast
F - Quince
G - Rosyn

After the drawing, it was determined that they would appear on the ballot in the following order.
A - Lewis
E - Prendergast 
D - Osgood
F - Quince
G - Rosyn
C - Napalitano
B - Monroe

For the 4-5 p.m. filers on Dec. 21, there were only two filers for the contest and the letters were selected in this order: A, B.

A full list of ballot lottery results can be viewed and downloaded via this PDF.

For the April 6 election, 693 candidates filed with the Clerk’s Office to run for school boards throughout suburban Cook County. Candidates not included in the ballot position lottery will appear on the ballot in the order they filed. Ballot order for municipal, park, library and other districts will be determined by the jurisdiction in which they seek office.

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