Ja’Mal Green wins lottery for top spot on the ballot in Chicago mayoral race, petition challenges continue

CHICAGO — The ballot order for the Chicago mayoral race has been set.

In the modern Internet era, there was nothing fancy about the lottery that decided the order of candidates on the 2023 ballot Tuesday, as an election official did it the old-fashioned way — pulling pieces of paper from a bowl to decide Chicago’s mayoral election lineup.

“For [the no.] one [spot],” said Board of Elections official Max Bever. “It is six, that is Ja’Mal Green.”

Green took the top spot, followed in order by Sophia King, Kam Buckner, Willie Wilson, Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot — who skipped the lottery — will be listed seventh out of eleven candidates, followed by Frederick Collins, John LoGalpo, Roderick Sawyer and Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia.

Garcia secured the bottom spot by being the final candidate to file his petition signatures shortly before the filing deadline on Nov. 28.

Will petition challenges narrow the mayoral field?

While the ballot order is set, challenges to candidates’ petition signatures remain in play.

Ja’Mal Green challenged the petition signatures of Willie Wilson before Monday’s deadline set by the Chicago Board of Elections, while Wilson’s top campaign advisor — Rickey Hendon — also submitted a challenge for Green’s petition signatures.

Both Green and Wilson allege their signatures will hold up, but Green is also challenging Wilson on a separate front too, arguing Wilson hasn’t lived in the city of Chicago for the required one year before an election takes place, but instead in Hazel Crest.

“I have a home wherever I can afford to buy one,” Wilson said. “We have a home in different places, but I have one in Hazel [Crest], one is downtown here [in Chicago].”

On top of challenging Green’s signatures, Wilson also took aim at alderman Roderick Sawyers signatures too.

In a statement, Sawyer responded to Wilson’s challenge, saying “[Wilson] talks about being denied access to voting in his life, but now that he’s a wealthy man, he’s doing the exact same thing — denying people their choice of candidate by means of his wealth. That’s the height of hypocrisy.”

The Chicago mayoral election will take place Feb. 28. If no candidate captures over 50% of the vote, a runoff election will take place April 4 between the top two vote-getters.