With four seats on each of Naperville City Council, District 203 School Board, Indian Prairie District 204 School Board, and the Naperville Park District Board of Commissioners, there was plenty up for grabs in the 2021 Consolidated General Election.
There are still mail-in ballots to be counted in both DuPage County and Will County. As long as they are postmarked by April 6, mail-in votes are valid, which means none of these vote totals or percentages are final.
“We do have quite a few vote by mail that are still coming in,” said Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry. “We got about 1,000 in the mail today, we had 1,000 come in yesterday. I’m hoping we’ll be able to hold another central count maybe Monday or Tuesday of next week.”
While not all of those ballots will be from precincts affecting Naperville’s races, there is still a significant amount of outstanding mail-in ballots yet to be counted where races could be affected.
Naperville City Council
Naperville City Council election results as of 10 a.m. on April 7
With current Councilwoman Judy Brodhead reaching her term limit and current Councilman Kevin Coyne not seeking reelection, there will be at least two new members on city council. Ian Holzhauer leads the way with 14.08% of the vote, incumbent Benny White is in second with 13.72%, Paul Leong is in third with 12.05%, and Jennifer Bruzan Taylor sits in fourth with 11.86%.
Allison Longenbaugh is closest to moving into the top four at 11.27%, or 367 total votes behind Bruzan Taylor.
District 203
District 203 election results as of 10 a.m. on April 7
Incumbents won the day in District 203, with current board president Kristin Fitzgerald comfortably in the lead with 17.28% of votes. She’s followed by incumbent Donna Wandke (15.24%), incumbent Charles Cush (14.09%), and Amanda McMillen (13.95%). The only incumbent not returning to the D203 School Board is Paul Leong, who won a city council seat.
The closest challenger to that top four is Adam Russo (10.2%), though he is more than 1600 votes behind.
District 204
District 204 election results as of 10 a.m. on April 7
District 204 also saw a somewhat clear line of delineation after the top four vote-getters. Incumbent Laurie Donahue leads the pack (13.45%), followed closely by incumbent Susan Taylor-Demming (13.22%). Newcomers Allison Fosdick (11.69%) and Supna Jain (11.45%) round out the winning candidates.
Shannon Adcock is currently in fifth place with 9.51%, 867 votes behind.
Naperville Park District
Naperville Park District election results as of 10 a.m. on April 7
The Naperville Park District will have three new commissioners, all women, on its next board. Mary Gibson leads the pack with 17.48% of the vote, followed by Allison Thompson with 15.79% and Leslie Ruffing with 14.98%. Incumbent Mike King is currently in position to retain his seat with 13.2% of votes.
Challenger Rhonda Ansier is 138 votes back, the closest challenger in any of the four major Naperville races. She has 12.95% of the vote.
Turnout and Voting Methods
Turnout for the 2021 Consolidated General Election was comparable to previous elections of its type. DuPage County reported a voter turnout of 15.59%. That’s up from 2019’s 14.8% and ends at least a three-election streak of decreasing percentages turning out.
Will County shows 15.8% turnout, which is a large jump up from 2019’s 13.16% turnout.
“In 2019 the turnout was about 13% and then 2017, which actually had the township races in it, turnout was about 18%. So we’re right in the middle there between those two years,” said Staley Ferry. “Obviously I’m always hoping for better turnout in these elections. We try our best to get the word out and use social media and all kinds of things.”
Staley Ferry credited large numbers of early voters and mail-in voters for the increases from 2019, despite this election being held during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had about 18,000 vote by mail ballots requested which is way, way higher than we’ve seen in the past for a consolidated election,” said Staley Ferry. “And early voting as well, we had almost 13,000 people early vote for this election which, again, is up way more than previous consolidated elections.”
Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.
You can watch NCTV17’s full live coverage of election night here.
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