How Illinois suppresses voter turnout in Chicago and beyond
My testimony at the House Ethics and Elections Committee.
Earlier this year the Chicago Policy Center published a first-of-its-kind analysis on voter turnout in Chicago.
As the only big city in the country to hold local elections in February of odd years, we found the city of Chicago was suppressing voter turnout by 40%.
That’s the result of state law, which sets the timing of local elections in Illinois.
Last week, the Illinois House Ethics and Elections Committee held a subject matter hearing on changing the date of municipal elections in Illinois. The Chicago Policy Center was invited to testify by committee chairman Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, on our research.
That testimony, the results of Thursday’s City Council meeting, and more in this week’s edition of The Last Ward.
Let’s get into it.
To boost election turnout, change election timing
Good morning Mr. Chair and members of the committee, my name is Austin Berg and I serve as executive director of the Chicago Policy Center.
Thank you for inviting me today to discuss what is an important topic at all times and in all places, but one that is especially important in this time and in this place, and that is: our democracy.
We all know that in a democracy, the will of the people is supposed to be expressed at the ballot box. And we witness that incredible expression on Election Day.
Now if you’ll indulge me, I’d like us all to imagine just for a moment that today of all days is Election Day. And in fact, the polls have just closed. The sun has set. And you’re sitting at home, on the couch, watching the news. The returns are starting to come in. You see in the crawler at the bottom of the screen that one candidate is winning in your district, and not by a narrow margin, in fact they’re winning 70% of the vote. You pull out your phone to check results from the next town over, this candidate’s winning 80% of the vote. They’re winning 90% of all voters in some counties.
The local news anchors throw it to Mary Ann Ahern and she’s calling it folks, this is a rout. You scroll social media and the pundits are all saying the same thing: it’s a mandate. A mandate with a capital M. A crystal clear mandate from the voters. You turn off the TV and head to bed.
Now let’s get back to reality. Of course, there hasn’t been a political victory of that magnitude across Illinois for any candidate in a long time. But when we look a little closer at our municipal elections, our city council and mayoral races, there is something winning 70%, 80%, or even more than 90% of all voters. But it’s not a candidate. As you might have guessed, that’s the share of Illinoisans who did not vote at all in our most recent municipal elections—it’s around 80% of all voters.
And we should be describing those election results in the same way as the candidate I was describing earlier. It’s a rout. And it is a mandate—it’s a mandate to improve participation in our democracy right here in Illinois, and to protect its future.
But how do we do that? At the Chicago Policy Center we’ve been studying what this problem looks like in our biggest city.
Chicago is the only big city in the country that holds its elections in February of odd years. And that has a huge effect on voter turnout. Specifically, election timing suppresses turnout in Chicago’s municipal elections by 40%. And that holds across demographics. So in precincts with predominantly white voters, turnout drops 40% in municipal elections. Same for precincts with predominantly Latino voters. In precincts with predominantly Black voters, Chicago’s election timing is suppressing turnout by 42%. We’ve submitted our research on this topic to the committee for your further review.
But this isn’t just a problem in Chicago. Those February elections as you know are the statewide standard. And the turnout is even more dire in municipal elections outside our biggest city.
In Effingham County, for example, municipal election turnout for the last three elections has been 16%, 14% and 13%. In St. Clair County it’s the same story, with 16% turnout or less in the last four election cycles running. Entire cities are making major decisions about schools, property taxes, and local government with very few residents actually participating. That is not how a healthy democracy functions. That is not the will of the people being expressed.
The good news is we know the solution. And it’s very simple. Just change the date of the election.
Transitioning our off-cycle local elections to November elections is the single most significant step we can take to boost voter participation. It is certainly the only one of this scale that actually saves taxpayer money. And best of all, it’s been tried many times before.
In Austin and Phoenix, voter participation more than doubled after a change in their local election timing. In California, average turnout tripled in the 54 communities that moved to even-year November elections. In Baltimore, turnout more than tripled. In El Paso, turnout more than quadrupled.
All from just one simple change in the election date. All from holding elections when people are more likely to vote. Nothing magical. Nothing complicated.
I’ll close with a vision: Imagine the strength of our local leaders—whether in Chicago or Carbondale—if they could take office knowing their mandate actually did come from their neighbors. That’s the kind of representation Illinoisans deserve.
Thank you, and I welcome any of your questions.
Also joining the subject matter hearing was National Conference on State Legislatures Policy Analyst Katie King, who noted that changing local election timing to boost turnout is an accelerating trend across the country.
This year alone, 31 states have introduced legislation changing election timing, King said, with 12 of those states passing legislation.
University of Chicago Prof. Chris Berry also testified in favor of changing the timing of Chicago’s municipal elections, saying:
If the question is, ‘What do we do to increase voter turnout?’ I don’t think there’s evidence of any reform that has as big an impact as this one. There’s just nothing that even comes close…short of compulsory voting there’s nothing that will increase turnout more than changing the timing of the election to coincide with a higher level state or federal election. Not only does it increase turnout, but the voters that turn out become more representative … the research on this is overwhelming.
The day after the hearing, Chicago Ald. Gil Villegas introduced a resolution in Chicago City Council calling for the Illinois General Assembly to change the municipal election date to coincide with the state’s general election or authorize City Council to change the date of its municipal election by ordinance. You can read that resolution here.
Grocery tax defeated, ADU ordinance passes with limits
The 1% grocery tax proposal pushed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson did not come up for a vote in Thursday’s City Council meeting. Since the city needed to notify the state by Oct. 1 whether it plans to collect the grocery tax, the proposal is dead for now.
That means on Jan. 1, 2026, the 1% grocery tax will roll off receipts in Chicago, saving shoppers an estimated $80 million per year.
Thank you to all readers who told their City Council member to oppose this tax. You made a difference.
Also on Thursday, the City Council passed an expansion of the Accessory Dwelling Unit, or ADU, program, albeit in severely flawed fashion.
Alex Nitkin at the Better Government Association explains:
Thousands more homeowners will be able to build coach houses or convert their basements or attics into apartments — as long as their alderperson approves it — under a compromise measure the City Council approved Thursday after years of debate over so-called “granny flats” …
The ordinance, approved by a 46-to-0 vote on Thursday, legalizes the construction of ADUs in all Chicago neighborhoods that are zoned for small apartment buildings and in most business districts, but it empowers alderpeople to restrict their construction in neighborhoods made up of single-family homes — by far the most common zoning district in the city. It also requires that any contractor applying to build a coach house commit to hiring union apprentice labor…
The ordinance allows ADU construction “by right” in the original pilot zones and opens the door for the council to legalize ADUs in more neighborhoods that are zoned for single-family homes. But it also gives a wide array of powers to alderpeople to restrict their construction in each new area. Alderpeople can cap the number of new units added to any block. They can limit construction to owner-occupied properties. And they can require applicants to apply for an “administrative adjustment” with the city’s planning department …
The approved ordinance represents a “missed opportunity” to encourage ADU construction among middle-class and small-scale landlords, who already face financial and regulatory barriers, according to Swasti Shah, director of community engagement for the nonprofit Urban Land Institute.
In the news
I joined NBC 5 Chicago to discuss the unprecedented delay in Cook County property tax bills this year, caused by a bad deal between the county and Tyler Technologies.
For more background on Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s involvement with Tyler Technologies, I recommend listening to Fran Spielman’s recent interview with Ald. Brendan Reilly.
Reilly is running against Preckwinkle in the Democratic primary for Cook County board president.