Elections in Illinois |
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Chicago has held regularly-scheduled popular elections to select the city's mayor ever since it was incorporated as a city in 1837.
Chicago currently holds regularly-scheduled mayoral elections once every four years, in years prior to a presidential election.
Beginning with its 1999 mayoral election, Chicago has used a nonpartisan two-round system. Under this system, if no candidate secures an outright majority of the first-round vote a runoff will be held between the top-two finishers. No runoff is held if a candidate has secured an outright majority in the first round. Thus far, three elections (2015, 2019, 2023) have necessitated a runoff.
Up through its 1995 mayoral election, Chicago had formerly utilized partisan plurality voting.