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Grammy Award winning Rapper and Kanye West collaborator Che “Rhymefest” Smith narrowly lost his much publicized election bid yesterday to become the alderman of Chicago’s 20th ward to incumbent Willie Cochran, a retired police officer, in a hotly contested battle for the political post by just over 300 votes.
Smith’s campaign team has yet to concede to Cochran, citing that poll watchers witnessed voter irregularities at the booths. Individuals from Rhymefest’s camp met with the Chicago Board of Elections last night along with a pair of lawyers to no doubt discuss how the losing side can proceed to challenge the vote outcome legally if possible.
A defiant Rhymefest spoke with the press vowing to fight to the end. “I know that I didn’t fit the profile of an alderman traditionally. We gonna keep fighting for your votes to be counted. Every one of these irregularities is going to be taken care of," said Smith. Rhymefest and his camp's largest point of concern is that they allege some of the precincts weren’t counted and that non-resident votes were allowed to vote.
Rhymefest claimed 46% of the vote to Cochran’s 54%, a respectable number for a political neophyte. However, the “Jesus Walks” co-writer continued to show confidence in his camp’s claims of voter fraud. “We want to ensure that it’s fair and that every vote is counted, and that people who didn’t live in the ward of vacant lots weren’t people who were voting. We want to make sure that the 20th Ward voices are heard,” Rhymefest said last night as Cochran was recognized as the winner. “We concede nothing.”
Source: MTV
Smith’s campaign team has yet to concede to Cochran, citing that poll watchers witnessed voter irregularities at the booths. Individuals from Rhymefest’s camp met with the Chicago Board of Elections last night along with a pair of lawyers to no doubt discuss how the losing side can proceed to challenge the vote outcome legally if possible.
A defiant Rhymefest spoke with the press vowing to fight to the end. “I know that I didn’t fit the profile of an alderman traditionally. We gonna keep fighting for your votes to be counted. Every one of these irregularities is going to be taken care of," said Smith. Rhymefest and his camp's largest point of concern is that they allege some of the precincts weren’t counted and that non-resident votes were allowed to vote.
Rhymefest claimed 46% of the vote to Cochran’s 54%, a respectable number for a political neophyte. However, the “Jesus Walks” co-writer continued to show confidence in his camp’s claims of voter fraud. “We want to ensure that it’s fair and that every vote is counted, and that people who didn’t live in the ward of vacant lots weren’t people who were voting. We want to make sure that the 20th Ward voices are heard,” Rhymefest said last night as Cochran was recognized as the winner. “We concede nothing.”
Source: MTV