Since Brandon Johnson’s victory over Paul Vallas in the mayoral runoff Tuesday, pundits of every stripe have been trumpeting their post-race take on how a little-known Cook County commissioner crafted the right ground game and campaign playbook to defeat a household name in Chicago politics and governance.
But there’s another election post-mortem that needs exploration — one that is deeply disturbing, given the weighty challenges in store for our magnificent, troubled city.
Voter turnout in the mayoral runoff was a mere 35.98%. Out of the city’s 1,587,153 registered voters, only 571,095 Chicagoans made the effort to cast ballots. That means more than a million registered voters opted not to weigh in on one of the most crucial decisions they could make as Chicagoans.
As disheartening as that is, we’re not at all surprised. Over the last 20 years, usually a little more than a third of registered voters have cast ballots in either the city’s first round or runoff elections, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Only twice in the last two decades did turnout top 40% — during the April 2015 runoff when Rahm Emanuel beat Jesús “Chuy” García, and in first round voting in February 2011, when Emanuel was first elected.
Voters could come up with myriad reasons for not participating. They may have been too busy or discouraged by the gray weather on Election Day. They may have been confused about how to vote early, or the process of mail-in voting, even though both alternatives functioned smoothly and were easy to understand. Perhaps they were unimpressed by both mayoral candidates or simply size up politics as inconsequential to their lives.
But those aren’t reasons for not voting, they’re excuses. As for explanations for not voting, there’s only one.
Selfishness.
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Voting isn’t just a right — it’s a responsibility. Democracy doesn’t work without it. Voting is arguably the best lever Chicagoans wield to hold their politicians accountable. It also serves as a strong counterbalance to machine politics. Don’t like the “Chicago Way?” You can do something about it by voting out its beneficiaries.
There are places in the world where voting is a sham exercise that only serves to give autocracies the veneer of legitimacy. In some countries, Election Day violence is an all-too-common scourge, but voters still queue up to polling places. They do so because they know apathy isn’t going to put them on a path toward a better life.
In Chicago, apathy is the scourge. That’s unfathomable when you consider the city’s current plight. Violent crime is foremost on the minds of Chicagoans from Rogers Park to Roseland. Mass transit ridership is a shadow of what it once was, the downtown has lost vibrancy, a pension crisis continues to plague city finances and the gap between the city’s haves and have-nots shows no signs of narrowing.
The age demographic with the worst turnout on Tuesday was 18-24. Just 3.7% of voters were from that age category. Results in the Feb. 28 first round election were even worse — only 3.23% of voters were between 18 and 24. We understand that young adults may harbor cynicism about government and about the value of their vote. And we know that if someone of voting age doesn’t make voting part of their routine earlier in life, they’re less likely to vote as they get older.
But GenZ Chicagoans must realize that their apathy diminishes the likelihood that elected officials will tune into issues that matter the most to their generation. Politicians tend to pay more attention to constituents who vote, rather than those who stay silent. And remember that in close and local elections, a few thousand or even a few hundred votes can mean the difference between your candidate’s ascent or defeat.
There isn’t that much more government can do to ramp up turnout. Vote-by-mail and early voting make rationalizations about not having the time to vote dubious, even nonsensical. The mayoral race dominated broadcast, online and print media. A bevy of debates and forums gave Chicagoans ample opportunity to size up Johnson and Vallas, and their approaches to governance.
We did our part, endorsing ahead of both the Feb. 28 election and the runoff, and doing so in both mayoral and aldermanic races. Better turnout can only happen when Chicagoans realize they can — and must — play their part.
We’re fond of what the country’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, had to say about voting: “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
Ultimately, voting is an expression of engagement. Citizens take a seat at the table when they vote. They’re saying they care about the direction of their city, about who will lead it and how, about the goal of betterment for all.
When citizens vote, they become part of the solution. When they don’t, they fix themselves firmly along the sidelines, and remain part of the problem.
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