The 43rd Ward aldermanic election is not over yet. With 98 percent reporting at 9:38 p.m., the race between Michele Smith, with 38 percent, and Tim Egan, with 29 percent, will continue until a run-off election takes place on April 5.”We are very excited,” Michele Smith said at her post-election celebration. “We’re going to take a few days to regroup, then go back at it.”

Rick Bohn, Smith’s campaign manager, said that with nine people running, 38 percent of the vote is an amazing number to get. Bohn said Smith is ready and confident for the next six weeks that lie ahead.

Tim Egan seemed equally as confident. “Our team is more energized than ever,” he said. “This wasn’t about one candidate, it was about a team- it was about everyone in the 43rd ward uniting behind one candidate.”

This is not the first time Michele Smith has ran in a 43rd Ward aldermanic runoff. In 2007, Smith lost in a 43rd Ward run-off election to incumbent Ald. Vi Daley.

In Chicago, alermanic candidates must receive more than 50 percent of the vote to win. In aldermanic runoffs, the top two candidates with the most votes continue on to the run-off election.