By LORRAINE SWANSON
Editor
In a press teleconference call thirty minutes before Chicago polling places closed on Tuesday, Chairman Langdon Neal of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners reported a dismal voter turnout citywide.
“It has been a very quiet day in many respects,” Neal said. “It started off very slowly with respect to voter turnout and the slow pace was consistent all day long. We hope it picks up in the last half hour or we’re headed for a very low turnout this election.”
Preliminary voter turnout was 24 percent citywide out of 1.444 million registered voters as of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Neal said that if the Tuesday trends continued, voter turnout in the city would range between 25 and 30 percent.
The CBOE spent $14 million to get the vote out in the Illinois primary, not including software and equipment upgrades.
Neal agreed that the city’s low voter turnout was “embarrassing.” He said similar trends were reported statewide.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said.
While he didn’t think that Tuesday’s snowy weather played a role in the low voter turnout, Neal did think the early February primary may have been a factor.
“This is only the second primary held in February,” Neal said. “After the new year campaigns only into the swing the last couple of weeks. The early date did play a role and perhaps a little voter fatigue with respect to the election cycle.”
CBOE spokesman Jim Allen the larger than unusually high number of voters who registered prior to the 2008 presidential election factored into voter turnout, which increased from 1.3 million registered voters to 1.444 million in fall 2008.
“We had as you all know a rather significant rush ahead of the 2008 presidential election,” Allen said. “It does drop the turnout percentage.”
Aside from the low voter turnout, there were few incidents reported at city polling places. Three election judges, all women, were ejected for drinking. Two of the judges, Neal said, were already inebriated when their respective polling places opened for voting at 6 a.m. A third judge left for several hours and reported back to her polling place drunk.
There were other reports of electioneering, which Langdon described as “unintentional.”
At Edgewater Presbyterian Church in the 48th Ward, election inspectors showed up and reprimanded an election judge who was reported reading a newspaper during poll hours.
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It probably would have helped if the 46th Ward Democratic committeeman, Tom Sharpe, would have opened his office this election cycle. The office remained dark and empty with only a Vote Berrios and huge Vote Stroger sign in the front windows. If the committeeman doesn’t care about local elections don’t be surprised that the constituents aren’t involved with local politics.