Early voters set record in Chicago election while turnout at polls at times ‘sluggish’
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In an election set to whittle down a crowded field of mayoral candidates, Chicago saw a continued shift to early and mail-in voting that left polls much quieter Tuesday than in past years.
By the time polls closed at 7 p.m., Chicago elections officials calculated that 32% of registered voters had cast a ballot in the municipal general election — either at the polls Tuesday, at an early-voting site or through the mail.
That percentage is expected to rise as straggler mail ballots roll in — all count if they’re postmarked by Tuesday. In comparison, voter turnout was 35%, 34% and 42% for the same election cycles in 2019, 2015 and 2011, respectively, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.
Voters who didn’t vote early or by mail began heading to the polls at 6 a.m. to cast ballots in the hotly contested mayoral race and vote for aldermen in all 50 wards.
Incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot was being challenged by eight candidates as she sought reelection to a second term.
Chicago voters for the first time in city history were able to vote for representatives on civilian police oversight councils.
While votes were still being counted Tuesday evening, many races — including the mayor’s race — weren’t expected to be decided until runoffs April 4. Candidates for mayor and aldermen could not win office Tuesday unless their vote totals exceeded 50%.
Mail-in ballots can be counted if they’re received by March 14, so long as they were postmarked by Tuesday. As of about 9 p.m. Tuesday, about 97,000 mail-in ballots remained outstanding, said Max Bever, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections. He noted that, based on prior return rates, ultimately 60,000 to 80,000 of those ballots would likely be returned.
As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, 507,852 ballots had been cast at the polls, early voting sites or received by mail by the Chicago Board of Elections, representing about 32.1% of the city’s 1,581,564 registered voters. Nearly 245,000 of those votes came before Election Day, the highest number ever for early voting in a municipal election. And that doesn’t count more mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday and expected to arrive in coming days.
Voting varied widely by ward, led by the 19th, with ballots collected for 55% of registered voters there, as of Tuesday night. The Southwest Side ward includes the political bastions of Beverly, Mount Greenwood and Morgan Park, where Ald. Matt O’Shea was battling two challengers.
By age groups, most votes — around 19% — were placed by people 55-65, as of 7 p.m..
Fourteen polling places opened late, including three in the 36th Ward, officials said. Overall, few problems were reported.
A complaint was filed against an election judge in the 5th Ward, but the judge remained on the job.
By noon, Chicago elections officials reported fewer-than-typical votes cast at polling places.
“It’s been eerily quiet,” Bever said. “Unfortunately, I think that’s (because) turnout is sluggish. ... We seem to be consistently 8,000-10,000 less voters per hour compared to 2019.″
Voting picked up as the day progressed, peaking at nearly 33,000 votes cast between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Emmanuel Camargo, a 50-year-old Fulton Market resident who works in IT, came to the early voting Super Site in the Loop to drop off his mail-in ballot to vote for Lightfoot. He said his support for Lightfoot never wavered.
“We need leadership,” Camargo said. “I think her opponents are criticizing her failures, and they are failures of her administration, but it was (an) unprecedented (period of time).”
Marie Drevets, 22, an engineer who lives in Logan Square, also dropped off her mail-in ballot at the early voting Super Site, but, unlike Camargo, she voted for U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, whom she said she has come to trust.
”I wasn’t satisfied with Mayor Lightfoot,” Drevets said. “I’m not satisfied with her stands on public safety, and I haven’t really seen a lot of efforts to improve that.”
Ava Berry, 55, came to Silvie’s — a bar fitted with a disco ball — in the North Center neighborhood to vote for Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson. Her dog, Humphrey, came along with her for his third voting experience.
Berry said she voted for Johnson after picking through all the candidates’ websites looking for “authentic gestures versus speaking points.”
”He spoke of equity in education throughout the city,” said Berry, who works for a nonprofit focused on employing people in underresourced communities in the city and partners with a nonprofit dedicated to reducing gun violence on the South and West sides.
“It is interesting because (mayoral candidate) Paul Vallas has a history in the Chicago Public School system, but somehow he didn’t speak to me,” Berry said, adding that Johnson also spoke to the issue of reducing gun violence.
David Galvan, who has lived in Bridgeport for all of his 70 years, was the first voter at the boathouse at Park #571. The morning started out at the polling place with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” thanks to the site’s election coordinator Bryan Keane.
Galvan said he chose not to vote for Lightfoot because “she ain’t doing nothing.”
“To be honest with you, I don’t believe there is a politician in the state of Illinois that can do anything about the violence,” said Galvan, who works at Rush University Medical Center.
Early voting turnout suggested interest in the race was relatively high, exceeding both the 2019 and 2015 mayoral races.
In looking just at votes received before Election Day, this year saw far more mail-in ballots, coupled with a continued heavy number of votes cast at early voting sites.
As of Monday morning, early-vote turnout was the highest in wards known for dense populations of city workers: the 19th Ward on the Far Southwest Side, the 41st and 38th on the Far Northwest Side, the 13th on the Southwest Side, and the 11th, centered around Bridgeport and Chinatown.
Bever said that both the June 2022 and November 2022 elections saw about 25% of voters who voted early, about 25% of voters who voted by mail and about 50% of voters who voted on Election Day, with this year’s early voting numbers suggesting the potential for a similar breakdown.
Some people voting Tuesday remained confused about their ability to cast their ballots at early voting sites, where anyone can vote despite ward residence, Bever said. The UIC Student Center East, for example, was a new early voting site this year because of new lines drawn in the 34th ward, but Bever said a number of people thought they missed an opportunity for voting at a voting center if they waited until Election Day.
Poll workers at the UIC Student Center East said turnout Tuesday was relatively low compared with the past few days.
James Economos, 38, of Logan Square voted for Vallas on Tuesday afternoon in the student center, which took him no more than 10 minutes.
”Vallas is little bit more moderate than the other candidates,” Economos said. “As long as Lori doesn’t win I’ll be happy — just her attitude, it’s very confrontational, very aggressive.”
Oswaldo Jimenez, 20, a sophomore at UIC, voted for García, who he’s met at local campaign events around the 4th congressional district.
Lakeview resident Sam Samatas, 72, voted for Vallas at St. Luke Church, noting a dislike of Lightfoot’s “progressive politics.” Samatas is the president of South Lakeview Neighbors and recently hosted a candidates’ forum where he felt strongly about Vallas’ focus on the issues, specifically crime.
”We’ve got some bread and butter issues, and the main one is people have to start feeling safe in the city,” Samatas said. “I’ve been a resident of Chicago my whole life and to be honest, I don’t take the CTA train at night, only because I may see or be involved in something I’d rather not be involved in.”
As in last year’s elections, election watchers saw potential for issues stemming from redistricting and fewer polling places, which caused confusion among voters when some showed up at the wrong polling locations.
But Bever said there were fewer people going to the wrong polling place Tuesday than the last election.
While last year’s two-paged ballot caused issues in various precincts, as election officials neglected to give every voter both pages of the ballot, this year’s ballot was one, single-sided page. Voters did not have to worry about using Sharpies either, as the Election Board opted for Papermate felt-tipped pens after concerns last year with the Sharpies, Bever said.
Primary elections were also held Tuesday in a smattering of suburbs, including Aurora, Harvey, Dolton and Oswego.
Chicago Tribune’s Stacey Wescott contributed.
