Election Day has come and passed, and we, the residents of Westchester, have been left wondering? Who will be our next Village President?

As votes were reported on Election Night, a lump came in and it looked like it was going to Tracy Jennings, then another lump came in and it was Kevin McDermott. Then, the McDermott name was bolded with 100% of the precincts reporting. So is Kevin going to be our next Village President? It looks like it according to the Cook County Clerk’s website but the numbers just don’t add up. So to help understand, I thought I would take you through the numbers. 

According to the numbers, there were 3,530 ballots cast in Westchester. This is the total number of ballots that have been reported to date (including 75 ballots that were recorded on 4/6). That includes those people who early voted, those who voted on Election Day, and those people who requested a mail-in ballot and that ballot had been received by April 5th.

The Village President position is considered to be the top-level candidate. So basically, it should be the position the most people voted on. So most political analysts would assume that the number of people who voted for President should be very close to the total ballots cast.

There is a safety net number though. That is the number of people who voted for the Village Clerk. It is the second-highest ballot position. 3,127 people voted for either Dana Bax or Sophia Collins. This means that the number of people who voted for Village President should be between 3,127 and 3,530. But only 2,560 votes are reported for President. 

So there is an unaccounted-for balance of votes that are unreported, somewhere between 567 and 970 votes. That number is the write-in ballots. So we know that most of those votes belong to Greg Hribal. McDermott has 665 votes. If Hribal can get more than that, he will be next Village President. If not, it will be McDermott. 

Now, one more thing that we have to consider.  There was a mail-in ballot result drop today and next will happen on April 10th. That could change the numbers. So, who will be our next Village President? No one knows, for now. But will we will know mid- to late-April.