This Just In: Not Official Yet, But Westchester's Next Mayor Could Be A Write-In Candidate
Greg Hribal, Westchester's former acting village manager, may have garnered enough write-in ballots to be the suburb's next village president
Greg Hribal, center, at a tree dedication last year. | File
Greg Hribal, a 30-year Westchester employee who retired last year after serving his third stint as acting village manager, is cautiously optimistic that he may have garnered enough write-in votes to become the next village president.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hribal said his internal numbers show him with 676 votes, more than the 647 votes generated by technology professional and former District 209 board member Kevin McDermott, the top vote-getter among the five candidates whose names appeared on Tuesday’s ballot. Lowell Seida was the other write-in candidate running for village president.
As an example, Hribal showed me the ticker tape from one precinct that had “Write-In” as the highest vote-getter, with 61 votes. McDermott was next-highest, with 40.
This is relatively unchartered territory. A write-in candidate winning a mayoral race is practically unheard of, at least in Proviso Township. But write-in candidates are official candidates. They must file a declaration of intent with the Cook County Clerk’s office at least 61 days before the election.
According to the state’s 2022 Guide for Election Authorities, after the polls close, “[poll-watchers] can observe all the procedures election judges utilize to close the polls, such as counting write-in votes.”
All officials who tabulate votes should “be provided a supply kit that includes all necessary forms and a complete list of valid write-in candidates for each precinct” and all ballots should be checked for write-in candidates. In addition, all valid “write-ins shall be listed on the ‘Write-in Tally Sheet’. If there are no valid write-in votes, ‘none’ should be written across the tally sheets.”
To determine the validity of a write-in vote, “the spelling of the candidate’s name need not be exact as long as the intent of the voter can be determined. There should be some relationship between the appearance or the sound of the name written in and that of the candidate’s actual name. In the case of a misspelled name, a majority of the judges must agree as to the intent of the voter and whether or not the write-in vote will be counted.”
Hribal, 48, said he announced his campaign for village president on Feb. 4, after the official deadline for filing to be on the ballot.
“To get people’s attention, I had them write in and early vote for me so they could get it done and done right,” Hribal said. “That’s why I feel the upcoming vote count will be in my favor.”
Among the 3,455 ballots cast in Westchester, 2,501 went to the five village president candidates who appeared on Tuesday’s ballot, according to the count on the Cook County Clerk’s website. That leaves 954 ballots cast, which means those voters who cast them did not vote for any village president candidate, wrote in Seida, wrote in Hribal or wrote in someone or something else (use your imagination). There are still mail-in and absentee votes that need to be counted, too.
The preliminary vote totals in the Westchester board race as they appeared on the Cook County Clerk’s website on Tuesday night. | Screenshot
“We believe, using math, that there are 900 or more write-in votes that need to be tallied,” Hribal said. “There are Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck votes, so I can’t be confident until I actually see. I’d need 60% of that 900 or so.”
A source in the Cook County Clerk’s office said the votes would be counted and certified in three weeks, and that the Westchester village president race could be resolved by adjudication this week.
“I believe that I will be notified by Cook County on a date to be determined,” Hribal said. “I will meet them to do a count. They’ll open the ballot boxes that are locked, and I will most likely bring a person familiar with election law who will watch the count. Anything thrown out will be put in a pile to be reviewed again. I don’t know how long it will take.”
Hribal’s supporters are also cautiously optimistic. Nick Steker, Westchester’s acting village president, said the fact that Hribal’s write-in candidacy was even plausible is “a testament to who Greg is as a person and his reputation. I also think it’s a testament to our residents. Despite the fancy endorsements, the big-money contributions, and the giveaways — Westchester isn’t going to be fooled or bought. We want what’s best for our community. Everybody knows Greg is a stand-up guy.”
Still, Hribal’s decision to run for mayor, just a year after his unexpected decision to retire as acting village manager, may have caught some by surprise. Hribal said Wednesday he can now speak more frankly about his decision.
“As village manager, I was working approximately 60 hours a week, and I’d been there for 30 years,” Hribal said, adding that he started working for Westchester in 1993 when he was hired at 18 years old to be a 911 dispatcher.
“I’ve kept my head down and was very fiscally responsible and said, ‘I think it’s time for me to take some time off, if not retire completely,” Hribal said. “However, the number of hours was just bearing down on me. I can say now, that there were certain things I couldn’t get done because there was a six-person board. I’d bring things forward, and a lot of things stalled. I felt like I was in quicksand. “
Hribal became acting village manager on April 12, 2022. He had previously been the village’s IT manager. Hribal also served as acting village manager at least twice before that point, in 2013 and 2019. Later that month, Paul Nosek resigned as village manager amid murky circumstances, including an unfinished plan to move the Village Hall from Roosevelt Road to Enterprise Drive. The village board eventually hired an outside legal firm and voted for another firm to conduct a forensic audit, often done to look into possible financial abuse.
If elected, Hribal would succeed Westchester’s former village president, Frank Perry, who died in December 2021 — less than a year into his first term.
“The idea to run for office came from my love of Westchester,” Hribal said. “That’s not a political answer, it’s just the truth. I’ve lived and worked here my whole life, and I plan on staying. It’s a place I would love to be involved in, and after I retired, I thought about the best ways to do it. I could join a committee or work on the Citizens’ Advisory Board. But in discussions with friends about it, they said, ‘You can get the support to [run for mayor] because you know a lot of people and have done a lot of good for this town.’”
But Hribal stopped well short of declaring victory, emphasizing that votes still need to be counted and reviewed.
'“I can't be confident until I actually see it,” he said, referencing the certified election results declaring the winner of what has already proven to be the most significant mayoral race in Westchester’s recent history.
I’ll have more as this story evolves.