Although the largest election in Illinois history did not deliver record numbers to the polls, Tuesday’s balloting brought defeat to one Chicago alderman, while a write-in candidate appeared to upset Prospect Heights’ longtime mayor.
In Chicago, where there were nine aldermanic runoff elections, Mayor Richard Daley apparently failed in his attempt to eliminate the last vestiges of independence from the City Council. Veteran Ald. Helen Shiller (46th) claimed victory over Daley’s candidate, Sandra Reed.
And on the South Side, Ald. Barbara Holt (5th), who won office as an independent four years ago but became a Daley ally, lost to independent Leslie Hairston, according to unofficial returns.
In Prospect Heights, Mayor Edward Rotchford apparently was defeated by a write-in candidate, Ald. Gerald Anderson, who had been knocked off the ballot for failing to staple his nominating petitions.
Rotchford acknowledged that unofficial vote totals showed him losing by 47 votes out of more than 2,000 cast and said that he would demand a recount. Anderson, meanwhile, basked in victory.
“This wasn’t a win,” he said. “It was an example that people can do the right thing.”
The balloting came in Illinois’ first consolidated election, combining the traditional fall school board elections with April municipal elections.
Although the anticipated increase in voter turnout failed to materialize, controversies involving a handful of issues and races among the thousands of referendum proposals and candidates on the ballot generated intense interest in communities across the Chicago area.
There were plenty of spirited contests for public office, including races in which Mayors George Pradel of Naperville and Karen Bushy of Oak Brook won re-election, Downers Grove elected new Mayor Brian Krajewski and Elgin Mayor Kevin Kelly was defeated by Ed Schock.
In Chicago Heights, unofficial totals with all precincts reporting showed incumbent Mayor Angelo “Sam” Ciambrone leading challenger Thomas “T.J.” Somer by just one vote out of more than 8,700 ballots cast. Ciambrone claimed victory.
And in Highland Park, former Mayor Daniel Pierce was leading incumbent Raymond Geraci.
Although Daley apparently failed in his efforts to oust Shiller and save Holt in Chicago aldermanic races, unofficial returns showed that his candidate in the 10th Ward, John Pope, had defeated Robert Wisz.
In the 21st Ward, Ald. Leonard DeVille appeared to survive a challenge from Denby Barrow.
In the 16th Ward, Ald. Shirley Coleman won easily over Hal Baskin. And in the 1st Ward, Ald. Jesse Granato outlasted Cynthia Soto.
There also were dozens of heated school board races, including those for Palos District 118, the Joliet Junior College Board, Naperville District 203, West Northfield District 31 and Wilmette District 39.
Some of the more contentious contests involved proposed increases in local real estate taxes.
They included ballot requests: for $125 million for improvements at Harper College in Palatine; a third try at $85 million worth of school building for Carpentersville-based Community Unit District 300; $70 million for schools in Lake County’s Township District 113; $55 million for the Lake County Forest Preserve District to buy more land; a $16 million park recreation center in Naperville; $70 million for land purchases by the Kane County Forest Preserve District; and $81 million in school construction throughout Will County.
In Rolling Meadows, voters were deciding whether to repeal the city’s home-rule powers.
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Even when a ballot proposal had no practical effect, it could drive voters to the polls, if only to let them vent their displeasure with the status quo.
That was the case in Lisle, where Dave McCann’s polling place was so crowded that he decided to get a haircut at a nearby barbershop while waiting for the line to thin.
McCann said a non-binding advisory referendum question on the city’s annexation of land for a proposed Meijer superstore drew his neighbors to the polls.
But turnout such as that in Lisle were few and far between. At most polling places, it looked like any other municipal election.
In Crystal Lake, voter turnout at the Presbyterian Church was so low that election judges passed the time trying to figure out how much their taxes would rise if voters approved a bond referendum measure for the local elementary school district.
At Holy Family Catholic Church in Inverness, election judges Marjorie Claeson and Shirley Byrne passed the time doing needlework, reading and conducting an informal poll on voters’ ages.
Cook County Clerk David Orr, the leading proponent of consolidating the November school elections with the spring balloting for municipal and library officials, was satisfied that the number of voters exceeded the usual turnout for the fall school elections. He anticipated results similar to four years ago, when 23 percent of eligible voters went to the polls.
“The bottom line is, turnout is going to be better than it was with a separate November election, with an 8 (percent) to 12 percent average. If it is the same as it always is (in the spring elections), that is a big plus for us without the extra expense.”
Orr estimated that the county will save up to $3 million by not having to pay for printing those ballots, hiring election judges and renting polling places in November.
Throughout the metropolitan area, officials reported few problems, even though the merging of the two elections forced the printing of a record combination of ballots for voters whose school, library and community college district boundaries overlap municipal borders.
Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin), who sponsored the consolidated election law, pronounced the election “a success.”
“I would argue that it means twice as many people were participating in the school elections than ever before,” Rauschenberger said. “The ballots went OK. And there didn’t seem to be any problem in the campaigns in my area of mixing the school election with the municipal election.”
One problem was reported in Oak Park, where ballots mistakenly told voters to select four candidates for the District 200 school board instead of three. A special election might be required there. And a computer malfunction delayed election results from Maywood.
Few problems were reported in Chicago, other than some of the usual shenanigans.
In the West Side’s 29th Ward, a pickup truck driven by a supporter of candidate Isaac “Ike” Sims Carothers was traveling the neighborhoods, blaring a reminder for residents to get out and vote but only annoying some. Carothers ended up defeating Floyd Thomas, unofficial returns showed.
In Barrington Hills, election judges Marilyn Foster and June Dienes blamed “pathetic” voter turnout on uncontested races.
“You want to talk about voter apathy,” said Foster, as she flipped through a magazine. “We have candidate apathy.”