Chicago municipal elections see sluggish turnout

Election Day in Chicago: Voters weigh options for mayor, aldermen, police district council

FOX 32's Joanie Lum is at the Loop super site downtown as voters show up for the lunchtime rush. Chicagoans are taking this election seriously and say they are weighing their options carefully when it comes to the mayoral race.

CHICAGO - Esteban Rodriguez, a 65-year-old Army veteran, lives in a shelter for veterans. He’s one of a few there who have the ability to vote — many don’t have an up-to-date state ID.

So he made the trip Tuesday to his local polling place, the YMCA in the 27th Ward, to exercise his cherished right to vote in Chicago’s municipal elections. His top concern was the equitable distribution of city resources.

"I’m sick of seeing taxpayer money spent not where it’s supposed to be," Rodriguez said. "There needs to be more support for services and affordable housing. I know what it’s like to be homeless and to feel powerless."

Rodriguez was one of thousands to head out into the sunny skies and 50-degree weather that greeted voters at the polls Tuesday. It was the people’s turn to have their say after the seemingly never-ending campaign stops, candidate forums, attack ads and political mailers.

LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: Votes tallied in Chicago's mayoral race

But it wasn’t quite the turnout some had hoped for based on high early numbers of mail-in ballots, which turned out to represent a change in voting method rather than newfound interest in local elections.

"Election Day turnout has been pretty sluggish compared to 2019, which was not great to begin with," Chicago Board of Election Commissioners spokesman Max Bever said.

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The Chicago Board of Elections says this municipal election has had the highest amount of pre-election voters on record. FOX 32's Joanie Lum has the latest on Election Day in Chicago.

As of 5 p.m., turnout stood at 28.1% with 444,731 ballots cast among 1,581,564 registered voters. Turnout was driven by older voters — 34% of ballots cast so far were by people age 65 and up — but those aged 25 to 54 cast more votes as the day went on. The strongest voting hour for all voters was 4 p.m.

Voter turnout by age group as of 5 p.m. Tuesday:

18 -24: 12,165 ballots cast – 2.74%
25-34: 56,889 ballots cast – 12.79%
35-44: 67,601 ballots cast – 15.20%
45-54: 68,540 ballots cast – 15.41%
55-64: 86,593 ballots cast – 19.47%
65-74: 88,724 ballots cast – 19.95%
75+: 63,661 ballots cast – 14.31%

There was still a ways to go for this year’s turnout to catch up to the 35.5% turnout for the first round of voting in 2019 as over a dozen candidates vied to replace former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

For both mail-in and early voting, the board had counted 112,000 ballots as of Monday night with about 100,000 mail-in ballots still outstanding. Based on past history, 70,000 to 80,000 of those were likely to be sent in or delivered to a drop box on Tuesday.

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Any vote-by-mail ballots received on Tuesday won’t be counted until Wednesday morning. Bever said the remainder should arrive in the next few days, and the election board has till March 14 to tally all the votes from mail-in ballots. Those counts are likely to be particularly vital to determining tight alderperson races.

Harold Holt, a 56-year-old library assistant, was at the polls by 8 a.m. Tuesday to vote before work.

Holt said he was "ambivalent" about voting, though he cast his ballot to honor those who fought for the right to. "People died so that we can have the right to do this, so I’ll definitely be voting," he said.

Like many voters, Holt’s top issue in the election was crime and public safety. He said he’s heard "lots of ideas," but nothing he thinks is solid enough to make the change he wants to see.

"I still have yet to hear something definitive," Holt said outside the Damascus Baptist Church polling location on the Far South Side. "Nobody, including the current mayor, has said anything definitive, but change at this point can’t hurt.

At the same 9th Ward polling place, Tian Gatewood said voting was something "we should all practice," adding that his family votes in every election — something he’s proud of.

"Some of us take it for granted," Gatewood said. "If we don’t come out and try to change the politics and structures there’ll never be change."

A little farther north in Auburn Gresham, Kenneth Degales, a 21st Ward resident, showed up at Mahalia Jackson Elementary School with donuts.

He said he was inspired by someone else in the community who started bringing refreshments to election workers, and in November, he had promised he would, too.

"I wanted to keep my promise and make sure that they’re fully awake, not falling asleep," Degales said. "The donuts will hopefully help them to keep going."

Across the street from Woodlawn’s Wadsworth Elementary, one of many schools-turned-polling places, Darryl McConnell was waiting for a bus to work and ignoring people handing out fliers for candidates.

He’d already decided he wasn’t voting.

"I don’t know the people," McConnell, a Stoney Island and Woodlawn native, said. "They’re always saying something. Black, white, doesn’t make a difference."

McConnell said his brother died during the pandemic from COVID-19, and he’d recently become houseless. To him, the politicians whose signs littered the parkway in front of his bus stop weren’t taking enough action to prevent the hardships he has been dealing with.

"The system’s all right, it’s just the people who run it," McConnell said. "They ain’t got nothing for me … I gotta take care of myself. Life is fragile."