Election Turnout Low in Palatine

Turnout for the Consolidated Election in Palatine and across suburban Cook County was abysmal Tuesday, with less than 20 percent of registered voters turning out.

Voters had decisions to make regarding school boards, village councils and other local governments. Despite the fact these governing bodies are funded through property taxes and make decisions that influence property tax bills–often a hot topic–voters chose to stay in droves.

After 24 years of service on the Palatine Village Council, District 5 Council member Jack Wagner was defeated by challenger Kollin Kozlowski. In unofficial returns, Kozlowski received 592 votes to Wagner's 455.

There are 7,756 registered voters in District 5. Of those, 1,342, slightly more than 17 percent, cast ballots. And, only 1,047 cast votes in the District  5 race between Wagner and Kozlowski.

In the Community Consolidated School District 15 Board of Education race, only 10,804 votes were cast out of 65,709 registered voters, according to the Cook County Clerk's election results website.

In Palatine Township, there were 59,243 registered votes, of whom about 10,140 cast ballots, a turnout of about 17 percent.

There were 8 precincts located out of Palatine Township, in those areas, turnout for the District 15 race was abysmal.

For example, in Barrington there were 979 registered voters who could have voted in the District 15 race. Only 88 cast ballots on Tuesday. In the District 15 race there were only 21 votes. Given the fact that each person could vote for up to three candidates its possible that only 7 people voted in the District 15 race in the entire precinct.

The none Palatine Township precincts–Elk Grove, Barrington, Schaumburg, Wheeling–had a turnout of below 10 percent for the race, with 655 ballots cast out of a pool of 6,466 registered voters.

Overall turnout in suburban Cook County was about 17 percent with 232,187 ballots cast out of 1.395 million registered voters.

The turnout was bad even by Consolidated Election standards. The turnout was the worst in more than a decade. The only other year turnout in suburban Cook County was below 20 percent was in 2007. That year turnout was 17.2, however, more people voted in that election–236,050–than voted this year even though the number of registered voters has increased.