Election Night Running Diary 2025: Ongoing updates as results come in for 10 contested local races

This page will regularly share election results as they are posted by the county clerk’s office (Cook County for Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Northfield and Kenilworth | Lake County for Highland Park). Results should begin to publish around 8 p.m.

11: 50 p.m. Published election-night recaps of contested local races: Wilmette Village Board | Wilmette Park Board | Northfield village president | Northfield Village Board | Avoca 37 School Board | Winnetka 36 School Board

To come Wednesday:

• Winnetka Park Board: Caucus candidates (Gibson, Corley, Root) with strong lead
• Highland Park City Council: Jon Center opens up significant advantage over Kim Stone
• Highland Park Park Board: Beck, Greenberg with commanding leads
• North Shore 112 School Board: Incumbents plus Fink, Fishman emerging from 7-candidate field

10:45 p.m: In Highland Park, Jon Center has taken and holds the lead from Kim Stone in the race for a two- year City Council seat.

10:25 p.m. Stories beginning to publish now. Navigate to The Record’s Election Page for the latest.

9:18 p.m. A handful of races are sealed:

Wilmette Village Board: Justin Sheperd (i), Mark Steen and Michael Lieber
Wilmette Park Board: Allison Frazier (i), Patrick Duffy (i) and Kara Kosloskus (i)
Northfield Village President: Tracey Mendrek (just 90-vote lead, and she told The Record the race was too close to call.)
Avoca District 37 School Board: Dan Seals (i), Yoav Sharon (i), Carolyn Cole and Lauren Rivera-Haire (i)
Winnetka District 36 School Board: Dan Waters (i), Alyssa Rapp (i) and Andrew Hotz (all caucus endorsed)
Winnetka Park Board: Elise Gibson (Duda), Scott Corley and Collen Root (i) (all caucus endorsed.

Highland Park races: too early to call.
Northfield Village Board: too close to call.

8:11 p.m. The race for Highland Park City Council has heated up. Kim Stone (1,422 votes) remains up but by only a few votes on Jon Center (1,408). Kevin Cullather has fallen further behind. Stone is currently a councilmember, while Center campaigned on transparency and criticized the council for the long process to change the liquor-license code.

The D112 School Board race is shaping up to be a five-person race. Lori Fink, Jaret Fishman, Art Kessler (i) and Bennett Lasko (i) are leading with Sharone Marck about 200 votes back. Ryan Morgan and Bradley Hergott are well behind.

7:49 p.m.: All 11 precincts are reporting out of Winnetka, and looks like voters trusted the caucus and not the candidates. Caucus-recommended Elise Gibson, Scott Corley and Colleen Root (incumbent) are in the lead. On the campaign trail, Gibson and Corley joined with Freddy Johnson (4th, 1,065) for a ticket, and Root with Mary Garrison (5th, 1,019) and Steven Juliusson (6th, 847).

For School Board, Patrick Conway is firmly behind the caucus slate of Hotz, Rapp and and Waters.

7:45 p.m.: We now have 20 of 22 precincts reporting in Wilmette, and Justin Sheperd (2,664), Mark Steen (2,646) and Michel Lieber (2,436) are ahead of Ryrie Pellaton (1,730). It does not appear that Pellaton can catch up at this point.

And with 19 of 21 in, looks like the incumbents have run away with the Wilmette Park Board Election. Frazier (2,378 votes), Duffy (2,226) and Kosloskus (1,977) have a commanding lead on McKinley (1,440), Johnson (1,151) and Royal (1,007).

7:40 p.m. In Highland Park’s competitive City Council race for 1 spot, Kim Stone (744 votes) is up on Jon Center (625) and both are well ahead of Kevin Cullather.

For North Shore District 112 School board, it’s tight. Lori Fink, Art Kessler and Jaret Fishman are all above 875 votes while Bennett Lasko and Sharone Marck aren’t far behind at 730+ votes. Morgan and Hergott are significantly behind at this point

And for Park Board of Highland Park, Josie Beck (975 votes) and Steven Greenberg (946) are well ahead of Thomas Vanden Berk (367).

7:32 p.m. In Northfield, with all 5 precincts reporting, Tracey Mendrek (779 votes, 53.1%) has the lead on Charles Orth (688, 46.9%).

But looks like Pam Papadatos (804 votes, 23.65%) is the third highest vote getter for trustee and has broken the slate. She is ahead of Edwin Elfmann (798 votes, 23.47%) by just five votes. Matthew Galin (914) and Andrew Juedes (884) are on top.

7:24 p.m.: First returns are light (1 precinct reporting of 22 in Wilmette), but:

Wilmette Village Board — MIchael Lieber (210), Mark Steen (204) and Justin Sheperd (174) up on Ryrie Pellaton (113)

Wilmette Park Board: Incumbents (Duffy, Frazier and Kosloskus) all over 20% with challengers (Royal, Johnson, McKinley) between 10-15%

Winnetka Park Board (3 precincts) Elise Gibson (563 votes), Scott Corley (484) and Colleen Root (442) are up — all caucus endorsed, but not running together.

Winnetka District 36 School Board: Caucus slate of A. Hotz, Alyssa Rapp and Dan Waters are all over 27% (450 votes) with Patrick Conway trailing at 248/15.22%

6:30 p.m.: Races we are following:

• Wilmette Village Board (4 candidates/3 seats)

• Wilmette Park Board (6/3)

• Avoca District 37 Board of Education (6/3 full terms)

• Winnetka District 36 Board of Education (4/3)

• Winnetka Park Board (6/3)

• Northfield village president (2/1)

• Northfield Village Board (4/3)

• Highland Park City Council (3/1 two-year seat)

• Highland Park Park Board (3/2)

• North Shore District 112 Board of Education (7/4)

Through its Local Election Guide, The Record provided candidate research and election resources related to these races and others in its coverage area.