Here’s what real voter suppression looks like in Illinois – Wirepoints Quickpoint

By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

If activists and lawmakers really cared about democracy, they’d drop their unfounded claims of “voter suppression” and instead end what really depresses voter turnout: off-cycle municipal elections. 

Illinois – like many other states across the country – holds its municipal elections in off years that don’t coincide with the general elections, resulting in dramatically lower voter turnout. Ten to 20 percent participation is what you get in most suburban and downstate elections, and it’s only in the 30s for Chicago. That’s sharply lower than the 50 to 70 percent turnout for general elections, depending on whether it’s a presidential year or not. 

The low turnout of ordinary voters means public-sector unions consistently dominate the results of local elections. The unions have the resources to mobilize its members to turn out and vote for officials who give them what they want.

That’s particularly true when it comes to electing Illinois school boards, where union influence and the state’s pro-union collective bargaining laws make it easy for boards to trample on parents’ rights over their children. From critical race theory to sex education in kindergarten to forced remote learning to school COVID mandates to teacher walkouts, parents are being overrun.

“Voter suppression” as defined by most activists is simply untrue. The WSJ has already documented how voter ID laws don’t depress turnout, that local legislatures aren’t overriding their state’s popular votes, that early and mail-in voting in states has just been made easier in states like Georgia, and more

Instead, it’s the off-cycle local elections that have a real negative impact on democracy.

Compare, for example, the turnout for local suburban and downstate elections. 

The 2021 consolidated election saw just 16 percent of voters turn out to vote for the Village of Glenview’s president. Across all of Rock Island County’s elections, just 16 percent of voters actually cast a ballot. In Macon County, just 12 percent of voters participated. In Sangamon County, just 11 percent of voters cast a ballot. And in Calumet City, just 11 percent of voters chose the next mayor.

Voter turnout for Chicago’s off-cycle municipal election was just 35 percent in February 2019. In contrast, in the last general election of November 2020 the city had a turnout of 73 percent.

The difference in turnout for suburban Cook County elections is even bigger. The average voter turnout for the county’s off-cycle consolidated contests for the last three elections was just 16 percent, compared to more than 50 percent for general elections and over 70 percent for general elections in the same year as presidential contests.

The solution to the low voter turnout is to move municipal and consolidated elections to coincide with the state’s general elections. 

The Manhattan Institute recently made the case that combining the elections can create ​​greater and more equitable voter participation, ​​lower election costs, reduce the power of special interests, promote greater accountability, and enhance political representation and government responsiveness. (For details, see Revitalizing Local Democracy: The Case for On-Cycle Local Elections.)

So next time you hear Illinois lawmakers go on about “voter suppression,” make sure to ask them what they’re doing to end off-cycle voting.

Read more from Wirepoints here:

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Spike Protein
2 years ago

I have long felt that municipal and other local elections should be moved from the so-called “consolidated elections” held in odd numbered years to even numbered years to coincide with county, state, and federal elections in order to increase the visibility, awareness, and participation in these local elections. Municipal and other local elections are also typically non-partisan, which means that the candidates officially run as not belonging to a party even though in reality they almost always belong to a party. This means that it’s often difficult for voters to ascertain the true political leanings and affiliations of local political… Read more »

HeywoodJaBlome
2 years ago

Off cycle elections give the democraps the chance to practice election theft and perfect that skill.

Rick
2 years ago

Makes sense, reduce the number of voters so your organized voters can swamp the ratio. This would be hard to change in court because you’d basically have to argue well judge… non-government-union citizens are apathetic so we want you to change the election dates to something more exiting for them. The other side would have a field day giggling at that argument.

Paul
2 years ago

And down here in Iroquois County most of the local elections are already decided just based on the ballot. Most run unopposed or pick three out of three is the vote.

debtsor
2 years ago

Off-election cycles are usually non-partisan, so you have no idea who or what you’re voting for. In the last municipal election the “Moms for Schools!” slate was elected for my school boards. What do Moms for School even mean? No one knows! It doesn’t matter! But at the bottom of the flyer in small letters was Supported and Paid for By The League of Women Voters. That’s all I need to know. My local park district is half run by a bunch of communists who, after being elected, started reorienting the district towards climate change and social justice. One board… Read more »

nixit
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

LWV is only the tip of the iceberg. Trade union Operating Engineers Local 150 has a special political action committee for local elections. They paid for the yard signs (usually one of the largest expenditures for local candidates) for a slate running for Glen Ellyn school board. Of course the slate won.

NB-Chicago
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

seems ballot harvesting friendly, via unrestricted mail-in voting, proposed in dem voter bill-of-rights would give even more power to machine, unions and special interest groups in off year elections when hapless voters aren’t paying attention….not that dullard illinois voters are ever paying attention anyway

Rob M
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

Term limits, public financing of campaigns, elimination of PACS, “Dark money” strict ethics laws with draconian penalties for violation. No pension, no lifetime health care like IL legislators get. All units of government should be required to use advisory referenda for any budgetary item, exceeding a modest percentage, and real, transparent audits should be done. All government agencies should use Zero balance budgeting and should have to justify their departments need. Campaigns should be about ideas, and should not be about pushing ideological agendas that are not part of the charter for the entity they want to represent. Our system… Read more »

Old Spartan
2 years ago

Excellent analysis. Of course you won’t get any response to this from any of the so -called reformers, Democrats or election officials.

Rob M
2 years ago

It’s all by design. All the unionized city workers turn out and keep the incumbents in their cushy jobs. There is a disconnect. The government serves its own interests over those of the voters. The majority of voters do not want large intrusive and expensive government. Essentially, we have representation of the few, not of the entire citizenry. Ed Burke was very good at voter suppression too. Once he got the votes he needed, they’d cut power, or break a water main, or have goons to intimidate opponents. He also was not above running a stalking horse to siphon away… Read more »

nixit
2 years ago

Gerrymandering is the largest contributor to voter suppression. Doesn’t amount to a hill of beans if you show up to vote and only one candidate is running or, like in Cook County, the winner was already decided during the primary election.

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

I’ve voted nearly every election in my life, except for a couple of primaries when I lived in Chicago, because in most cases, there were only two or three republicans on the entire ballot of two dozen races, so why even bother showing up.

I think I pulled a D primary ticket to choose Preckwinkle over Todd Stroger; and I pulled a D primary ballot two years ago to vote for Bernie instead of Biden, assuming it would be easier for Trump to beat the communist. But I felt so icky.

nixit
2 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

I encouraged many R’s to pull a D primary ballot to vote against Foxx. Not enough, obvs.

This is where gerrymandering can work against progressives. If Republicans have no one to vote for, they will choose the moderate Dem over the SJW candidate. The moderate Dems just need to be sure there aren’t multiple moderates running to split the vote.

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

In theory that works, and that’s what I did in 2020, and both Biden and Kim Foxx still won.

NB-Chicago
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

It’s my understanding that dems voter right bill makes a phoney attempt to end gerrymandering. Bill proposes state gerrymandering lawsuits would be heard but ONLY in US District Court for District of Columbia (DC) which is currently dem controlled and super lib and not in any other Fed courts. https://thefulcrum.us/amp/how-to-end-gerrymandering-2656432659 

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  NB-Chicago

Wow! All gerrymandering cases filed in DC? The same district that is holding J6 political prisoners and torturing them?

NB-Chicago
2 years ago
Reply to  NB-Chicago

but currently gerrymandering is more prevalent in red states than blue.

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  NB-Chicago

That’s just lies Democrats and the media and the academics say over and over again. It’s only gerrymandering when Republicans do it, but it’s OK when Dems do it. They gerrymander the same. Just look to IL for gerrymandering; MA has 30% republicans and Zero house seats, Maryland has 7D and 1 R house seat; NY is about to put IL’s gerrymander to shame by converting the current 19D-8R map to 23D-3R map. There are plenty more examples of this but you’ll never hear about it because it’s good when Dems do it, and bad when Republicans do it. And… Read more »

Eugene from a payphone
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

Let’s not forget the old Cook County trick of running a stooge candidate who espouses views similar to the opposition in order to dilute the vote against themselves. Bob Fiorito comes to mind immediately.

George D
2 years ago
Reply to  nixit

The new Cong map is the big gerrymandering. Even Bobby Rush the south side hack didn’t like it and quit

Pat S.
2 years ago

Stop making sense!

Logic like that is an anathema to IL politics.

ron
2 years ago

We need an additional choice on many ballots .” NONE OF THE ABOVE” If there is only one candidate, this is often the best vote.

jajujon
2 years ago

Wirepoints is right. Off-cycle, local elections, particularly for school boards, heavily favor interest groups like public sector unions. Why? Because they have a solid nucleus of dependable voters and supporters, thereby skewing results because of low turnout among the electorate. A study conducted 9 years ago in Texas revealed very interesting results when local elections were shifted to on-cycle. School districts granted lower teacher salary raises and the board trustees were less responsive to the dominant group – the union – after the switch. The lighter the vote turnout, the easier it is for these interest groups to win, control… Read more »

Kani
2 years ago

Rock Island County is just as corrupt as Cook County

Joey Zamboni
2 years ago

The LAST thing the left wants are *fair* elections…

Wally
2 years ago

There is also very little news coverage about local elections, candidates, and issues. The Trib and Sun Times aren’t covering a Glenview election. Local papers don’t get much widespread attention. A pressing issue may arouse word of mouth attention, such as Haymarket in Itasca, but those cases are rare. In our village, the teachers union got 3 out of 4 seats on the school board because the unions get out the vote and most residents are not informed and uninvolved. They just pay the taxes and wonder why they go up.

debtsor
2 years ago
Reply to  Wally

The League of Women Voters is all over school boards, to the detriment of student, parents & common decency.

Bob Out of Here
2 years ago

Don’t overlook the fact a lot of races aren’t contested-there’s only 1 name on ballot. Not much incentive to vote, and the “winner” always gets all high and mighty and talking about how they have a mandate. It’s like winning a 5K and you are the only participant.

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