The Chicago Board of Elections voted Tuesday to remove five school board candidates from the ballot after upholding challenges to their nominating petitions, likely leaving at least five races uncontested in the historic November election.
Current board members Angel Velez in District 9A on the South Side and Cydney Wallace in District 8B on the Southwest Side — who were appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson and are aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union — were among those removed. Their opponents will now be the only candidates in their respective districts.
In District 10A on the South Side, Krista Nichols Alston was thrown off the ballot. The board hasn’t yet made an official ruling on candidate Tameka Walton, but she was endorsed by CTU as a write-in candidate. That means elected incumbent Che “Rhymefest” Smith will likely be the only name printed on the ballot for that distict.
Two other districts had only one candidate file to run from the beginning.
Ballot challenges are a time-consuming, expensive process when objectors, often from an opposing campaign, contest a candidate’s nominating papers. Typically, both the candidate and the objector hire attorneys to represent them during hearings and reviews of petition signatures. Candidates often must track down petition signers to get affidavits verifying their support.
The Electoral Board also removed Rosita Chatonda in District 10B and Marlo Barnett in District 9B, both on the South Side, though there are multiple candidates remaining in their districts. Barnett was removed because she did not specify her subdistrict in her nominating papers.
Velez, who represents District 9A on the South Side and serves as board vice president, called the objections process “deeply undemocratic.” He said he submitted 1,500 signatures, and after a records review, he was short just 10 valid signatures of the 500 required.
“I was the clear choice. I already served. I already had the leadership and the qualities to serve,” Velez said. “In my mind, I should have been able to showcase why I’m a good candidate.”
Wallace did not respond to requests for comments.
The Urban Center, a pro-school-choice lobbying group, was behind at least 14 objections, including those against Velez, Wallace, Nichols Alston and Walton. CTU, meanwhile, did not file any — a reversal from last election cycle — which the union said was intended to support ballot access.
More Top Picks Best Bed Sheets
The 2024 school board election largely pitted CTU-backed candidates against those supported by pro-school-choice groups. CTU-backed candidates won four of the 10 races, but the union-aligned bloc holds a majority because Johnson, a former CTU organizer, appointed the remaining 11 members.
Now that all 21 seats are on the ballot, both camps are again competing for control of the board.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates denounced the objections in a statement last week, framing them as part of a broader effort by pro-school-choice groups and moneyed donors to control the race.
“Chicagoans fought for decades to expand democracy. And now that they finally have a say in how their schools will be run, the same billionaires who opposed an elected school board are using their resources to corrupt the process,” Davis Gates said.
But Bobby Sylvester, Urban Center’s vice president, noted that CTU used the same tactic in 2024, knocking a dozen candidates off the ballot.
“We want to make sure that there’s a level playing field for candidates, and that includes the election rules and laws,” Sylvester told the Tribune last month. “There’s got to be one standard for everybody.”
With Velez off the ballot, his opponent, Brittany Bailey Preston, will run unopposed in District 9A. Preston — the wife of state Sen. Willie Preston, a Chicago Democrat — lost her own 2024 bid for the school board, after a successful ballot objection. With Wallace removed in District 8B, Chicago Police Department Detective Juan Ignacio Gonzalez will be the sole candidate.
A total of 51 candidates filed to run, and 17 are still facing active ballot challenges. The remaining objections will be decided before the ballot is finalized Aug. 27.
Walton, the CTU-endorsed write-in candidate, said she took time off of work and arranged childcare to attend hours of hearings at the Board of Elections. She spent time across her district collecting affidavits from voters, but she was still short the required number of valid signatures.
“Democracy playing out this way is not democracy,” Walton said. “Democracy is a choice. … This is a mental game.”