Nguyen likely secures ballot bid for DeKalb mayor race in April election

DeKALB – Linh Nguyen, a Northern Illinois University educator and a former League of Women Voters president, has likely secured her name on the ballot for April’s DeKalb mayoral race after Tuesday’s primary election.

That’s according to unofficial results for ballots cast in Tuesday’s primary election.

“I am deeply humbled and incredibly grateful for the support from the DeKalb community,” Nguyen said in a statement. “And I am so encouraged to see this powerful commitment to the idea that our democratic government is stronger when all voices are included.”

If unofficial results hold, Nguyen’s name will appear with three other challengers to be DeKalb’s next mayor: incumbent Cohen Barnes, 7th Ward Alderman John Walker and Kouame Sanan, who works in NIU’s IT department.

Nguyen’s fight for the ballot was fraught with legal challenges and disputes with the city of DeKalb’s Electoral Board, which booted her name from the ballot in November, ruling that she didn’t file her papers properly. Her campaign has disputed that claim, brought forward by DeKalb resident Albert William Vodden, but unsuccessfully fought the board’s ruling in court.

In December, Nguyen filed another round of candidacy papers, which saw her run as the sole write-in candidate in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for DeKalb mayor.

It was the only primary race in the county.

DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder Tasha Sims said her office, which administered the election, had a successful day.

“It was certainly quieter, definitely as opposed to November,” Sims said. “We had absolutely no issues at all. I would say it was a very successful election. It was interesting to see how many people cast ballots because I just had no idea how many people would participate.”

Unofficial results showed more than 365 voters cast ballots for the primary, and 72 ballots were cast on election day.

Officials previously said Nguyen needed 20 valid votes to make it onto the April 1 ballot.

The unofficial write-in results will be publicized Thursday, Sims said.

“We’ll have the breakdown of exactly how many were valid, how many were not valid,” Sims said. “But she does have over 20. I can confirm that.”

Sims said her office needs to hand-count the ballots to verify the validity of each of them.

She said the clerk’s office mailed out 750 ballots to those who requested Democratic primary ballots on a permanent basis.

“We received 150 of those, so we do have 600 ballots outstanding,” Sims said. “Though, historically, we only expect a small amount of those to ultimately be received.”

The results from the primary election become official and certified March 11, officials said.

“We will have already begun early voting for the April consolidated election starting March 7,” Sims said.