At the national level, the midterm elections are all the talk in political circles right now, with Election Day less than two months away. But here in Chicago, it’s the 2027 mayoral election that people can’t stop talking about.
Mayor Brandon Johnson is expected to announce a reelection campaign as soon as this weekend. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who is running for reelection to state office, also is campaigning for mayor, having raised $22 million for the race.
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza is running, too — though unlike Giannoulias, she had the good grace not to seek reelection to state office at the same time. Nine are in the race at this point, including familiar faces U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley and perennial candidate and business owner Willie Wilson.
But wait a minute.
Why must Illinoisans go to the polls in November, to elect federal and statewide officeholders, then vote again for their mayors and other city officeholders a mere three months later?
Well, it doesn’t need to be this way.
There were valid reasons to do it this way more than a century ago, in the Progressive era. The reasoning then for Illinois and other states to separate municipal elections was so voters could zero in on the local issues that affect them most directly: for example, city budgets, public safety, schools and property taxes. In the days of paper ballots and hand-counting, it helped local election boards manage the voting, too.
Today, Illinois is among 24 states with laws preventing municipal elections on federal election dates. In 19 states where cities are given a choice, most of the cities in 13 of them set off-cycle election dates, according to research cited in a recent National Council of State Legislatures report.
The disjointed election calendars have tangible negative impacts. “The actual effect is a decimated turnout at elections,” said Austin Berg, executive director of the Chicago Policy Center, the research arm of the Illinois Policy Institute. “It’s not just Chicago. This is a statewide problem, and you get some turnout numbers in municipalities outside Chicago where I don’t even know if you could call them elections.”
Effingham County in southwestern Illinois saw turnout numbers of 16%, 14% and 13% over the last three municipal elections, Berg noted. And St. Clair County saw rates at 16% or lower in the last four election cycles.
But the political tide is shifting, with cities across the country switching to holding local elections when people vote for state and federal offices, too.
According to the Sightline Institute, a nonprofit that tracks trends toward consolidated elections, more than 50 large cities have begun setting their elections on federal voting dates over the last 20 years. Another dozen municipal governments began doing so in 2022 alone, the group reported.
The changes are having a beneficial effect on turnout.
In many cities, the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot more than doubles in municipal elections after the switch to voting on national election days, according to research by the National Council of State Legislatures and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. When Los Angeles held its first even-year election in 2022, turnout nearly doubled, and winner Karen Bass received more votes than any mayoral candidate in city history.
Bottom line: The more people who go to the polls, the stronger our democracy. When more people vote, elected officials are directly responsible to more people, forcing them to earn the consent of the people they govern. Local election boards save money — tens of millions per election, in some cases — for vital governmental agencies that are perpetually underfunded.
Historically, the Chicago Democratic machine favored holding a nonpartisan mayoral primary in February of odd-numbered years, then the general election in the spring, because party insiders, unions and other interest groups can influence the outcome by getting their people out to vote when masses of registered voters would rather just stay home. The same sort of thinking has helped the Republican Party in the collar counties and downstate, too.
Will Illinois possibly join the national trend and move its municipal elections to the second Tuesday of November in even-numbered years? The idea is not gaining much traction yet. State Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, held a hearing on the matter last September, but there has been no major legislative push in the time since.
But there are reasons, beyond just the national trend, that Illinois politicians and the general public should begin seeking change, too.
At a time when democracy and voting are under pressure, perhaps Gov. JB Pritzker might earn political benefit in pushing for a calendar change that could be fashioned as strengthening the power of the vote and the democratic process. Such a stance could play well on the national stage.
And who knows. Perhaps the topic could actually work its way into the 2027 mayoral campaign, too. Consolidation in Illinois would increase turnout, make elected officials more accountable, save taxpayer money and stop people from running for two offices simultaneously.
Perhaps this will give at least some of Chicago’s current mayoral candidates a campaign talking point or two.
David Greising is president of the Better Government Association.
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