Perennial Write-In Candidate 'Dr. Y' Wins D229 Board Race, Plus OL Mayoral, Parks And D123

OAK LAWN, IL — Persistence paid off for perennial write-in candidate Kenneth “Dr. Y” Yerkes, who won the vacant seat for the Oak Lawn Community High School Dist. 229 school board. Yerkes was one of three candidates battling to fill a vacancy, that, for the second consecutive local election, was short a candidate.

The Oak Lawn dentist was the top vote getter with 339 votes, to Ben Bush, who came in second with 270 votes, and Anas Khraiwish, who garnered 70 votes, according to unofficial results from the Cook County Clerk's office. .

Mayor Terry Vorderer was challenged by Cathy O’Shea, who made the other unopposed incumbent Oak Lawn Village Board, spend money on signs when she entered the mayoral race as a write-in candidate.

O’Shea got less than 1 percent of votes cast in the mayoral race, with 303 votes. Vorderer recorded a total of 3,484 votes.

“I guess I’ll be mayor another four years,” Vorderer said, who was elected to his second term.

In the Oak Lawn-Hometown Dist. 123 school board race that also found itself short a candidate, Bryant Evans garnered 202 votes. Evans was the only candidate who filed to run as a write-in.

Andrea Zumhagen beat out two other write-in candidates for a seat that no one bothered to get on the ballot for the Oak Lawn Park District Board of Commissioners. Zumhagen was the top vote-getter with 626 votes, to Steve Loulousis’s 453. Celena Russ finished third with 25 votes,

Louloulis outpaced Zumhagen in early voting, 277 to 148, but Zumgaen picked up 421 votes on the actual election day, April 1, to Louloulis, who garnered 149 election-day votes. The term is for six years.