Early voting is off to a slow start in Chicago’s Black wards, where less than one percent of registered voters have cast their ballots for the November 5 General Election, according to the latest figures from the Chicago Board of Elections.
With less than a month to go before Election Day, the presidential race between Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump is expected to be a close one as the two step up their campaigns in key battleground states.
With several issues at stake, the consequential race is expected to boost voter turnout at the polls in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
In Chicago, the overall voter turnout is low, but the percentage is even lower in the city’s predominately Black wards.
As of Tuesday, October 9, a total of 1,614 voters in Chicago’s 17 Black wards have cast their ballots during Early Voting, which started October 3 at the city’s two supersites at 77 W. Washington and 191 N. Clark. There are over 528,000 registered voters in the Black wards.
Historically, voter turnout rises after Early Voting expands to all Chicago’s 50 wards with polling precincts.
Individually, voter turnout so far in every Black ward is less than one percent.
The 4th Ward, which includes parts of Hyde Park, Kenwood, Bronzeville and Woodlawn, had the highest percentage of voter turnout, after 241 voters cast their ballots out of the ward’s 29,696 registered voters. Based on past Crusader analysis of election data, the 4th Ward historically has one of the highest voter turnout rates among the Black wards.
The 5th Ward, which includes mostly South Shore and parts of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, had the second highest voter turnout percentage with 189 out of 25,892 registered casting their ballots.
The 3rd Ward has the third highest voter turnout percentage. Covering the South Loop, Bronzeville and parts of Washington Park and Englewood, approximately 226 out of the ward’s 32,371 registered voters have cast their ballots during Early Voting.
The 17th Ward so far has the lowest voter turnout percentage among the Black wards, with just 33 of 31,378 voters casting ballots.
Voter turnout is low in the entire city with just 11,739 voters out of Chicago’s 1.5 million registered voters. That includes 7,453 Vote by Mail ballots and 4,286 ballots cast by voters who voted in person at the two supersites in the Loop.
The 42nd Ward on the North Side has the highest voter turnout percentage in the entire city with 431 of the ward’s 30,097 registered voters casting their ballots.
By comparison, as of October 6, 2020, which was 28 days out from the November 2 presidential election, 70,955 voters cast their ballots, which includes 6,644 residents who voted in person and 64,311 residents who voted by mail in ballots.
The high numbers from the mail in ballots could be attributed to the pandemic, where many residents chose to stay away from the polls to avoid contracting COVID-19.