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.