Illinois mandates off-year municipal elections, but they result in lower voter turnout that gives powerful special interest groups more influence and diminishes local voters’ concerns.
As Illinois’ 2022 elections approach, voters are gearing up to cast their ballots in what is predicted to be one of the most competitive state primaries in the past 24 years. This is good news for democracy, because a higher number of candidates invariably grants voters more avenues to express their political beliefs.
However, this competition cannot be found across all of Illinois’ elections. Illinois has a history of downplaying the importance of municipal elections by placing them in odd-numbered years, thereby granting special interest groups greater control over local policy issues.
An off-cycle or off-year election occurs when a state allows municipal elections to take place at a different time than national contests (either presidential or midterm elections). The shifted timing of off-cycle elections harms turnout because voters are less likely to head to the polls if they perceive the ballot questions to be less important than those of general elections.
Illinois, which mandates off-year municipal elections, has seen the effects of this problem year after year. For example, in Chicago’s February 2019 municipal election, voter turnout was 35.45%. The following year’s general election, which coincided with the 2020 presidential election, had a voter turnout of 73.28%.
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