Clerk: 13 Percent is Record Low Turnout in Kane

Tuesday’s election was one for the record books. But not in a good way.

Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham confirmed Wednesday that the low voter turnout—13 percent county-wide, according to unofficial results—is in fact a record low turnout for a consolidated election. Even with municipal races in 29 cities and villages, school board races in 15 communities, and a $30 million forest preserve referendum on the ballot, voters did not make their way to the polls.

“It’s very sad,” Cunningham said. “These are the elections that affect your local pocketbook and taxes more than any other. People ask me what’s going on, and I don’t know.”

Cunningham said he was taken aback by the low turnout, because early voting numbers were healthy. In fact, they were 37 percent higher than in the last consolidated election in 2009, he said.

“I expected middle to high 20s, and I predicated that on the early votes as they were coming in,” he said.

The Kane County portion of the village of Montgomery scored somewhat higher, bringing in 14 percent, according to unofficial results. Kendall County figures for Montgomery will not be available for a couple of weeks, according to Clerk Debbie Gillette.

Cunningham backed up his director of elections, Linda Mitchell, who said last week that early voting does not bring in new voters, but only makes it more convenient for those who would have voted anyway. Cunningham said he was already aware of that trend, from watching other early vote sites in California and Texas.

But Cunningham said his office did everything possible to get people to the polls this time. Between early voting and absentee voting, those hoping to participate had weeks to do so. The clerk’s office runs a votemobile that made stops in various locations around the county, and sent a robocall reminding county residents about early voting.

That call helped bring in an uptick of about 200 voters the next day, Cunningham said—nowhere near its success in the 2010 election, when 1,000 voters hit the polls the day after the robocall.

He said he is at a loss to explain the low turnout, or to remedy it.

“Part of it is the candidate’s responsibility to get the vote out,” he said. “Beyond that, I really don’t know."

Comparatively speaking, Kendall County’s numbers were better. A total of 16.5 percent of the county’s registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday, up from 12 percent in the 2009 consolidated election.

Gillette said many of the races on the ballot were compelling this time, including contests for mayor in Oswego, Yorkville and Joliet, and some hotly-debated referenda. Still, Gillette called the turnout average, and echoed her Kane counterpart in wishing for higher.

“I don’t know why people don’t (vote),” she said. “I go. I know the impact it has on my property taxes. I make sure everyone I know goes and votes.”