By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints
We recently wrote about the worsening voter turnout of Illinois’ primary. In Sangamon County, home of our Capitol, just 13.9% voted. In Winnebago County, it was 14.1%. And in Chicago, voter turnout was just 25.9% – the lowest since 2012. We estimated overall statewide turnout would be about 20% overall.
Now official data shows turnout was a bit worse than that, at 19.1%. That’s the lowest presidential primary turnout since 1960, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Blame voter apathy on a lack of competitive elections. On gerrymandering. On the concern people have, thinking their votes don’t matter. It’s likely a little bit of each.
A new WTTW piece covers some of those issues well. Nearly 9 of every 10 state and judicial primary races had only a single candidate or no candidate running at all, WTTW reported.
What that leads to is uncontested races…and nobody showing up.
Read more here.
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