Increased voter turnout could reverse a decade-long trend and change the chart on April 4
LANSING, Ill. (April 3, 2023) – Lansing residents have one day left to change the trajectory of a chart that tells a harrowing story of voter turnout in Lansing.
Included below, the chart shows Lansing’s voter turnout has decline over the past 10 years, despite the fact that the number of registered voters has increased.
Numerous variables affect municipal elections from year to year — such as the number of contested races on the ballot, whether or not the election is a mayoral election, or even the weather on a given Election Day. Still, the overall trend is clear in the last decade: While the number of people able to vote has increased, the number of people who actually vote has decreased.
Putting the data in perspective
- Ten years ago in 2013, more than double the amount of people came out to vote in Lansing than in 2021.
- Roughly one in ten adults in Lansing voted in 2021, down from one in four in 2013.
- According to the Cook County Clerk’s Office, in the 2021 Village Trustee race, only 48 votes separated Maureen Grady Perovich’s unsuccessful bid (308) from Micaela Smith’s successful one (356).
- Of the 2,003 ballots cast in the 2021 Municipal Election, the top Village Trustee vote-getter — Brian Hardy — earned just 459 votes, or 2% of all registered voters in Lansing in 2021.
How to change the chart
To stop the downward trend of voter turnout, or to reverse the trend, registered voters in Lansing will have to go out and vote on Election Day (April 4, 2023). Those who haven’t registered to vote can do so on Election Day at their designated polling place.
Lansing has 16 voting precincts. If 50 additional people from each of those precincts came out to vote (assuming the number of registered voters stayed the same), turnout would increase to 12%, returning to 2019’s percentage.
To view your polling place, determine your precinct, and learn what to bring to register to vote, click on the article below:
To learn about the candidates and races that will be on your ballot, view our April 4 Election category by clicking below:
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