After record-setting early voting and mail-in balloting, Chicago election officials say that turnout for the 2023 municipal elections may still be lower than expected, with one official calling the turnout thus far “quite shocking.”
According to the latest data released by the Chicago Board of Elections at 5 p.m., just over one-quarter of the registered voters in the city have cast ballots in the election, with polls set to close at 7 p.m.
Data shows that average turnout has been highest among residents age 55 and older, with 238,978 ballots cast among that group, representing more than 53% of the total ballots cast so far.
In all, 444,731 ballots have been cast among more than 1.58 million voters, representing 28.1% turnout in the race.
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A spokesperson for the CBOE calls the turnout so far “quite shocking to see,” and said that hourly ballot totals are tracking between 6-to-8,000 votes lower than normal, and says that while officials hope to see a surge in votes after working hours, there is still a chance that turnout could fall short of the 40% threshold that many expected.
According to officials, the 4 p.m. hour saw the most ballots cast so far Tuesday, with 28,204 votes submitted across the city.
In the 2019 election, the city saw turnout of 35.45%, with 560,701 ballots cast in all.
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Voters have until 7 p.m. to cast their ballots. Officials say that mail-in and early voting ballots that were cast by Monday will be included in a count released just after polls close, with nearly 250,000 votes cast already, but also warned that mail-in ballots received Tuesday night won’t be counted until Wednesday morning at the earliest.
That number could be quite sizeable, with more than 100,000 mail-in ballots still to be turned in as Election Day got underway.
In the last election, more than 83% of mail-in ballots were ultimately submitted, with officials saying tens of thousands of ballots could still be turned in during the final hours.
As a result, voters could be waiting to hear results of the election for at least a few days if polls were correct in how close the mayoral race was.
