ETHS District 202 School Board Results

Update, 9 a.m. Wednesday: With all precincts reporting, Bill Geiger, Gretchen Livingston, Doug Holt and Patricia Savage-Williams appear to be the winners, according to unofficial results.

Update, 11:32 p.m.:

Bill Geiger, Gretchen Livingston, Doug Holt and Patricia Savage-Williams had the highest percentage of votes in this hotly contested race, with 60 of 61 precincts reporting late Tuesday night. 

More than 7,000 people voted for the District 202 school board, according to unofficial results, a voter turnout of more than 14 percent.

Update, 10:24 p.m.: Patch reached candidate Doug Holt at a campaign event at his house. With 60 of 61 precincts reporting, Holt had 13.91% of the vote, the third largest percentage.

"I've said publically more than once, this was a very strong group of candidates," Holt said. "That reflects well on Evanston and Skokie."

Over the course of the campaign, Holt said discussion has centered around the issue of restructuring more freshman classes to an earned honors model, where regular and honors students are taught in the same classroom. The high school district has already moved some classes to that model. Over the course of the campaing, candidates have debated whether the initiative is a success or failure, or whether it's too soon to tell.

"We all agreed that we should stop, look and listen, we should really look at whether the rhetoric meets the reality," Holt said. "Nobody was saying we should move ahead regardless of the data."

If elected, Holt said his first priorities would be to listen and ask good questions.

"I was a reporter for 15 years," he noted. "One of the things I bring to the board is 15 years of asking great questions and listening carefully."

"Rather than just come in with a bunch of predetermined opinions, I really want to take some time and listen and dig into the issues at a deeper level," he added.

Update, 10:06 p.m.: Speaking from a campaign party at Chicken and Waffles, McGaw YMCA CEO and candidate Bill Geiger said he was "incredibly grateful and very humbled" at the results so far. With 60 of 61 precincts reporting, Geiger had the greatest percentage of votes, at 16.63%.

"It's both a real pleasure and a tremendous challenge for me to live up to the support of so many people," he said.

If he is officially elected, Geiger said he would try to learn as much as he could from other board members, given he would be serving his first term on the board.

"There's an opportunity for me to get to know the other board members, to hopefully understand their perspectives," he said. "I also would like to be among those who help to build a really strong board," he said. 

Update, 9:58 p.m.: With 60 of 61 precincts reporting, Geiger, Livingston, Holt and Savage-Williams still have the highest percentage of votes in the race for four seats on the Evanston Township High School District 202 board.

Update, 9:33 p.m.: Bill Geiger, Gretchen Livingston, Doug Holt and Patricia Savage-Williams have the highest percentage of votes with 59 of 61 precincts reporting.

Update, 9:08 p.m.: With 58 of 61 precincts reporting, the candidates are still very close in this hotly contested race.

Update, 8:24 p.m.: The contest for District 202 is still too close to call, with all candidates within a few percentage points of one another.

RESULTS (UPDATED AS THEY COME IN TUESDAY NIGHT):

Note: Results do not include early voting, vote by mail or provisional ballots. Any votes for write-in candidates will not be counted until up to one week from the election.

ABOUT THE CANDIDATES:

Two incumbents are running for re-election, while six new candidates are also competing for one of four spots on the District 202 Evanston Township High School Board of Education. 

• Andy Bezaitis
• Elena Garcia Ansani
• Deborah Graham
• Casey Miller
• Pat Savage-Williams
• Bill Geiger
• Doug Holt
• Gretchen Livingston

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