Part 1
The Chicago Board of Elections reports that there are 1,498,813 registered voters in our fair city. I know for a fact that this figure is off by at least two: Two of my daughters still show up as registered voters in my home precinct, registered at my home address, although both are properly registered, and actually vote, in the suburbs where they in fact live.
But we will use the City's figure anyway. According to the CBOE, 297,802 of these 1,498,813 registered voters performed their most basic civic duty, voting in this week's primary. That's a turnout figure of 19.9%.
The Cook County Clerk's Office, which manages suburban elections, says there are 1,630,741 registered voters in what the first Mayor Daley used to call 'the county towns.' Of these, 311,752 are reported to have voted in Tuesday's primary. That's a 19.1% turnout.
Put it together: There are 3,129,554 reported registered voters in Cook County. Of these, 19.5% came out Tuesday (or earlier) -- 609,554.
But wait: It gets worse.
Ours is a partisan primary system, of course. One must choose a Democratic or Republican ballot, or some other, in order to vote in the primary. I kind of want to meet the six reported persons who took out "nonpartisan ballots" in the City of Chicago in this primary. They might be an interesting group. There were 1,077 "nonpartisan" voters in the suburbs, but there were referenda and other questions on some suburban ballots that might have brought out persons who would otherwise have stayed home, lest their partisan affiliation become known to their neighbors.
There were 878 Libertarian voters in the City and another 1,127 in the suburbs, and the suburbs also had 72 Green Party voters.
Day after day, night after night, in every TV program, on every channel, for several months now, until Tuesday, Chicago area viewers were subjected to an endless barrage of commercials for and against Irwin, Bailey, or Sullivan. Republican commercials for, or against, one of these three. Democratic commercials for Bailey and against Irwin. Pritzker spent millions. Ken Griffin spent millions. Dick Uihlein spent millions.
And for what? Or, more specifically, for whom?
There were a grand total of 130,550 voters who took Republican ballots in this primary, 32,834 in the City and 97,716 in the suburbs. That's 4.2% of all registered voters.
In any event, that leaves 475,844 voters who took Democratic ballots in this primary election, 264,084 in the City and 211,760 in the suburbs. That's 15.2% of the registered voters in the county as a whole.
And these few, these hardy few, decided all of the judicial elections in Cook County for 2022 (save one).
Because all the winners of the Democratic judicial primaries (except in one 13th Subcircuit race) are all unopposed in November.
This is great -- and I do not mean to suggest otherwise -- for the individual candidates who won their races and are now assured of taking office come the first Monday in December. But how can this be healthy for society as a whole?
In other words, no one should be criticized for playing by the rules -- that's what we're all supposed to do -- but maybe we should reflect, from time to time, whether the rules might need just a little revision. Like, for example, whether we might be better served with non-partisan primaries for judges, so that the 130,000 or so of our neighbors who were browbeaten into voting for Irwin or Bailey or Sullivan are not denied any voice in the selection of judges. (And the six City voters who took non-partisan ballots would not be shut out either.)
Some of the above numbers may change, a little, by the time the results are certified. The rough percentages will not. And there are still mail-in ballots that may have posted in a timely fashion that remain in the clutches of the United States Postal Service.
As of yesterday, the Cook County Clerk reports, there were still 27,387 votes 'uncounted' in the suburbs. Of this number, only 126 are mail-in ballots that are received but not yet tabulated. Some of these others are provisional ballots, not counted because registration was in question, or for other reasons like that, but the bulk of this large number, some 26,319, represents ballots which were sent out, at voters' request, but which have not yet been returned.
Not all of these are coming back. But the law requires that we wait two weeks to be absolutely sure.
I don't have City figures; if they are published, I haven't found them, but it seems safe to say they may be similar.
So the following figures may also change but, as you will see, in these races, the margins appear sufficient to overcome any likely last-minute mail-in ballots.
What follows are the countywide results for the Circuit and Appellate Courts (subcircuit results will follow in the next post). I have combined City and suburban totals. I have used a calculator and I have my glasses handy; these careful precautions notwithstanding, all errors of addition are mine (click to enlarge or clarify any image):
Appellate Court
Circuit Court (countywide)
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