That’s the number of dollars each of the estimated 100,000 votes cast during the run-off elections (as of 4 p.m. Tuesday) will cost taxpayers. The high cost is caused in large part by the low turnout, Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen said. The more voters, the more diluted the cost becomes for each vote due to fixed costs like renting a precinct place or the actual equipment inside.

Allen  said that as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, with three precincts yet to be counted, the total number of votes was at 113,000, about 28 percent of the 409,707 registered in the 14 wards. That sounds awfully low, but it's up from 26 percent who voted in the 2007 runoffs and the 25 percent voting eight years ago. In 1991, when 18 seats were up for grabs in the city's runoffs, 45 percent of voters in those wards made it out to the polls.