12K mail-in-ballots were not returned
Final election data show that in Chicago’s 17 Black wards, over 400,000 registered voters did not vote and nearly 12,000 mail-in ballots were not returned to the city’s election headquarters by the April 2 deadline.
The data from the Chicago Board of Elections puts into perspective the disappointing results of important tight local races that were decided by razor thin margins in the Democratic Primary, particularly the Cook County State’s Attorney’s race, where Clayton Harris III lost by just 1,571 votes to Eileen O’Neill Burke.
After nearly two weeks of uncertainty, the race was called on Friday, March 29, after officials finished counting the remaining mail-in ballots and figured out that it was mathematically impossible for Harris to win with just three days left for new mail-in ballots to arrive.
Harris conceded the race and decided not to push for recount, despite being within the five-percentage range of his opponent.
“The cost of a recount is something we would have not been able to sustain,” Harris said during an interview on WVON1690. “Mathematically, it was something that was not possible.”
The final elections show 264,428 voters in Chicago and Cook County cast their ballots for Burke, while 262,857 voters picked Harris.
Next Tuesday, April 9, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners will meet at its headquarters at 69 W. Washington to certify the Official Proclamation of Election Results, which serves as the Board’s final declaration of contest results from the previous election.
Final voter turnout numbers show only 22.7 percent of Chicago’s 1.5 million registered voters cast their ballots in the March 19 Primary. But questions remain whether Harris would have come out on top if the turnout in the Black wards was higher than a dismal 21 percent. That means a total of 404,591 registered voters in the 17 predominately Black wards did not go to the polls or send in their vote-by-mail ballots. Final election data show that in the Black wards 11,814 vote-by-mail ballots were not returned to the Chicago Board of Elections by the state-mandated April 2 deadline.
In Chicago’s 14 Hispanic wards, some 9,225 vote-by-mail ballots were not returned before Tuesday. In the city’s 18 white wards, 24,027 vote-by-mail ballots were not returned amid a Cook County State’s Attorney’s race where Harris and Burke both won a chunk of votes outside their ethnicity. Harris won 36 percent of the white vote and Burke won nearly 28 percent of the Black vote.
The final number for overall voter turnout for Chicago’s 1.5 million registered voters was just 22.74 percent, compared to the 19.69 percent from preliminary figures on Election Day.
In Chicago’s 17 Black wards, the turnout was even worse, with nearly 21 percent of over half a million voters casting their ballots.
Final election data show that voter turnout in the Black wards had risen slightly after all the mail-in ballots were counted. Data released after Election Day showed that voter turnout in the Black wards was just 18.56 percent. That percentage rose to 20.96 percent when the deadline for vote-by-mail ballots expired on April 2.
But the turnout percentages were even lower for seven Black wards, which had voter turnout numbers below 19 percent. The 16th Ward had the lowest turnout with just over 13.5 percent of the ward’s 25,182 registered voters casting ballots. The 24th Ward on the West Side had the second lowest voter turnout with just 15.46 percent of its 24,372 voters casting their ballots.
The Crusader also examined unreturned vote-by-mail ballots from the Black wards. Approximately 11,814 vote-by-mail ballots never made it back to election officials by April 2. A total of 13 Black wards had at least 500 mail-in ballots that remain in voters’ homes. The 3rd Ward had the highest with 1,167 unreturned vote-by-mail ballots, followed by the 27th Ward (1,124), the 4th Ward (1,058) and the 5th Ward (915).
When the polls closed on Election Day, Burke led Harris by 10,000 votes. But for the next six days, her lead dwindled dramatically before the two candidates were separated by 1,556 votes on March 29. That would be the closest Harris would get to Burke before the Associated Press called the race that day.
