Andrew Szorc spent Wednesday morning in the 32nd Ward office on Chicago’s North Side reviewing the astonishing election numbers.
Nearly 80 percent of the registered voters in the ward went to the polls on Tuesday, and in some precincts, turnout exceeded 90 percent.
“I’ve never seen people come out that early, that fast,” said Szorc, ward superintendent. “You didn’t have to go out and get people from their homes to go to the polls. They were going to come out no matter what.”
A day after ballots were cast, a look at three area precincts–on the city’s North Side, the South Side and in Elmhurst–showed that many considered this year’s election a watershed moment in American history.
In affluent areas and among the middle class, with young voters and old, many who voted Tuesday were driven by a sense that they had something important at stake.Those who went to the polls Tuesday said it wasn’t a political machine that motivated them–not phone calls from party activists or pamphlets left on their doors. This year, both Republicans and Democrats voted out of pure passion, fueled by a bitterly divisive campaign and a sense of mounting stakes.
“We’ll never see this again,” said Szorc, a Democrat. “Unless George Bush’s brother from Florida, Jeb, runs.”
With the country at war, the economy sputtering and Sept. 11 still fresh in people’s minds, voters were determined to make their voices heard.
In the predominantly Republican, upper-middle-class 38th Precinct in Elmhurst, turnout topped 81 percent. The neighborhood, where former DuPage County Board Chairman Jack Knuepfer resides, is sprinkled with tidy, spacious brick and frame split-level houses. Ninety-nine percent of the residents are white, and most are ardent Bush supporters. Voters there backed the president by a nearly 2-1 margin.
“I think a lot of people got out because they figured Kerry was going to do pretty good, and they had to get out and help Bush,” said Bill Gorman, the GOP committeeman for the precinct, which has 529 registered voters.
While turnouts in the precinct are typically high for presidential elections, lingering memories of the bitter 2000 campaign added motivation.
The notion that Kerry easily would take Illinois deterred few, and certainly not Mary Marcotte, 54, of Elmhurst. Three weeks ago, the high school English teacher perused two new sidewalk squares outside her home and noticed someone had drawn a blunt, two-word epithet in the cement directed at the commander in chief.
Sign of the times
Marcotte took it as a sign of the political times.
“That was kind of symbolic of the passion of people,” she said.
The turnout in Elmhurst helped DuPage County set an Election Day record. Robert Saar, executive director of the county’s election commission, said he expects the final voter tally to reach 404,000 countywide, eclipsing the previous high of 376,546 in 1992. This year’s turnout represented 76 percent of the county’s registered voters.
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In Chicago, more than 1 million residents cast votes Tuesday, roughly 73 percent of the city’s registered voters.
In some polling places, lines started forming at 6 a.m., and traffic was heavy throughout the day. That was certainly the case in the 4th Ward’s 22nd Precinct on the South Side, where Kerry signs remained stuck in manicured lawns Wednesday, and Barack Obama bumper stickers were on the windows of parked SUVs.
The six-square-block district, crisscrossed by leafy streets featuring two-flats and large homes, is 65 percent black, 25 percent white–and almost entirely Democrat.
Election results show 85 percent of registered voters in the Kenwood neighborhood precinct cast votes Tuesday. Of those, 91 percent voted for Kerry.
Donna Nix-Grant, 42, a minister who lives in the precinct, attributed the high turnout to a feeling in the community that the election was important, and that Bush had to go.
“It was because of the fact that we definitely needed to get out in numbers if we wanted to replace Bush. That was an incentive for a lot of people,” Nix-Grant said Wednesday as she walked her cocker spaniel, Sentinel. “My ancestors fought hard for me to be able to do this.”
Earl Hopewell said many people in his neighborhood learned four years ago that every vote counts.
Remembering 2000
“It’s just that the right to vote is important,” he said. “People realize that from the 2000 election.”
In the 48th Precinct on the city’s North Side, there were signs this summer that turnout would be high. The precinct, which borders DePaul University, is home to college students, young families and retirees. Three senior housing complexes border the 16-square-block precinct, which also has million-dollar homes, condos and apartment buildings.
Of the 68 registered voters in the senior living center where Jean Donnelly lives on North Southport Avenue, 53 voted on Tuesday. Throughout the precinct, 814 out of a possible 883 voters went to the polls, or a whopping 92 percent.
“It surprised me because in the past, if you got 50 percent of the registered voters, you’re doing pretty well,” said Donnelly, 77, who voted for Bush. “I’ve voted since I was eligible to vote, and I’ve never seen lines like that.”
Because of the precinct’s large number of young, transient residents, 149 people registered to vote between the March primary and the general election, a sign that interest in the election was high. Of those, statistics showed, all but 25 wound up voting.
“I expected a high turnout,” said Szorc. But even he was surprised by the 92 percent turnout in the 48th.
“Never in my whole life have I seen a turnout like this,” he said. “You would never see these numbers in a general election, much less an aldermanic race.”
Bounded by Fullerton, Wrightwood, Southport and Racine Avenues, the precinct is 88 percent white. About 64 percent of the precinct’s voters cast ballots for Kerry, boosted by heavy turnouts at the senior complexes.
At one of the buildings, 45 out of 48 registered voters cast ballots Tuesday.
“Everyone seemed to have voted,” said Mable Williams, 70. And perhaps more importantly, she said, “everyone seemed interested in voting.”
But it wasn’t just the elderly casting votes. Colean Lamb, 25, said she voted out of anger about the war. Lamb, a civil engineer, voted for Bush in 2000. This year, she voted for Kerry.
“I’m just very upset with the billions of dollars we’re draining into the Iraq war,” said Lamb, who spent Wednesday in her Wrightwood Avenue home, watching first Kerry’s concession speech, then Bush’s victory speech. “I think the country is very divided, and I think that’s why everybody wanted to get out and have their voice heard.”