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Chicago Election Historic In Many Ways

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Tomorrow's municipal elections will be history-making in a number of ways.

Langdon Neal, the chairman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, says it's "the first election in 64 years where we have not had a sitting mayor running for re-election."

"We also have 239 aldermanic candidates running for election [and] only seven uncontested ward races."

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Neal said election investigators will be on hand "ready to respond to any potential problems that might occur in the polling places."

In the 24th Ward, there are 18 candidates--with an unknown number of campaign workers.

"One hundred feet in front of the polling place belongs to the voters," Neal said. "It is a campaign-free zone."

Neal predicts turnout of just around 50 percent.

"Some of our voters feel fatigued," he said. "We've had a lot of elections, a lot of special elections."

Neal says he wouldn't be surprised to see runoffs in half the contested aldermanic races.

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