Illinois finished its 2024 primary yesterday.
The results were historic.
Not in 80 years have so few voters turned out for a presidential primary.
On the Republican side 20% of GOP voters voted for anybody but Trump, coming out to vote even though Trump is already the presumptive nominee.
Biden got 92% of the vote statewide. There are roughly 4 million Illinois voters. About 650,000 voted in the presidential primary.
That is what I would call massive disinterest.
I did not vote for anyone in the presidential primary.
I wrote in “ceasefire” instead to demonstrate my disgust with Biden’s support for Israel in its war on Palestinians.
Illinois does not provide a way to vote uncommitted like Michigan and Minnesota does. Write-in candidates require a mess of bureaucratic requirements.
It is a legacy of the old Democratic Machine which did not look kindly on high voter turnout or choices that they could not control.
But the historic low turnout says something, I suppose.
Gaza wasn’t on the ballot in Chicago or Cook County, so voting provided nothing in the way for citizens expressing their opposition to U.S. backing of the genocidal war.
Congressional incumbents mostly won.
In Chicago that meant mostly progressive congress members like Chuy Garcia who easily defeated an anti-immigrant challenger, alderman Ray Lopez.
Progressives suffered a major defeat in voter rejection of the “Bring Home Chicago” ballot referendum which would have reformed the property tax. Under the ordinance houses sold for over a million bucks would see their transfer tax increased. Houses sold for under a million would see a reduced transfer tax. The increase in taxes on million dollar sales would go to address homelessness.
Corporations spent tons of money on tv adds to defeat the referendum.
The courts kept flip-flopping on whether the referendum was constitutional or not. One day it was on the ballot. The next day it was off.
TV ads for the referendum, which was backed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, were non-existent except for the final days after most of the early voting had taken place.
It didn’t speak well for what some in the media were calling the progressive “New Machine”.