James Manrique runs the nonpartisan Champaign County Voter’s Alliance group, which works to inform voters and turn them out to vote. The group hosts a popular nonpartisan online voter guide that can be found at VoteChampaign.Org.
Manrique records statistics for how his site is used. He says the biggest attraction for the consolidated elections was the Parkland Trustee race. This was followed by the Champaign elections, which almost doubled the next most popular category of Urbana.
The Mahomet-Seymour School Board race garnered the fourth largest amount of traffic, only slightly behind Urbana’s races, suggesting an elevated interest in the unusually competitive race.
Manrique also says that a high percentage of his online traffic came from the University of Illinois, which he believes indicates that his group has had success in engaging and informing student voters.
The Mahomet-Seymour School Board race was indeed a pull for voters. The 2019 race saw approximately a 14% increase in votes cast over 2017. Aside from the Parkland Trustee race, it was the only contested race on the ballot for Mahomet voters.
The school board race saw two groups of candidates vying for votes.
Incumbents Lance Raver, Jenny Park, and Jeremy Henrichs, along with newcomer Jason Tompkins had the support of School Board President Max McComb. They were organized under the name “Keep Mahomet Seymour Strong.”
Newcomers Colleen Schultz, Meghan Hennesy, Ken Keefe, and Julie Cebulski composed a second group, aiming broadly to bring transparency and new voices to the board.
According to current, unofficial vote tallies, Henrichs kept his seat, outperforming all candidates with 1,064 votes, though he was the only candidate of his group to garner a winning count.
Schultz, Hennesy, and Keefe each celebrated a tentative victory, while Cebulski came up slightly short. Schultz won 1,029 votes, Hennesy won 1,053 votes, and Keefe won 979.
Some mail-in ballots have yet to be counted, and slim margins mean the final results are uncertain. At this time, Keefe has outperformed Cebulski by only 14 votes and Park by 17.
These unofficial results mean the ousting of incumbents Raver and Park, which may send a message to McComb and the school board that voters are looking for something new.
In the uncontested Mahomet Village Board race, Bill Oliger won 877 votes, a noticeably higher sum than Bruce Colravy and Donald Lynn who won 751 and 750 votes respectively.
Though the village board candidates were uncontested as there are three spots available for three candidates, voters may have used their votes to send a symbolic message of support for Oliger or distrust in Colravy and Lynn. The disparity may also simply be a strange quirk of chance.
Mahomet was an outlier in an otherwise incumbent-dominated evening. Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen easily defeated challenger Azark Cobbs with 84% of the vote. Champaign City Council Members Tom Bruno, Will Kyles, and Matt Gladney each kept their seats in a large field of eight candidates.
In the Urbana Park District, incumbents Roger Digges and Michael Walker were each re-elected. Champaign Park Commissioner incumbent Tim McMahon won 55% of the vote to narrowly defeat DeShawn Williams.
The Champaign School Board race saw three incumbents maintaining their seats. They will be joined on the board by newcomer Elizabeth Sotiropoulos.
In Chicago, voters delivered a decisive message in favor of now Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot. She won with 74% of the vote and will be the first black woman and first openly gay person elected to the office.
