Eye On Illinois: Voters showing strong preference for avoiding precinct polling places

The dust is settling – even as it stirs.

As of noon Nov. 4, the Board of Elections reported receiving 832,898 of 1,270,986 mail-in ballots (65.5% return rate) along with 1,520,513 early in-person votes and 31,476 grace-period ballots (for voters who registered and cast ballots on the same day after the regular registration deadline). Two weeks later, those numbers swelled. As local election officials finished counting mailed and provisional ballots this week – results will be certified Dec. 2 – there’s definitely enough information to draw meaning from the numbers.

The totals reported Nov. 21 showed voters returned 1,222,634 of 1,439,510 requested mail-in ballots, an 84.93% return rate. While some of that late growth is attributed to the efficiency of the postal service – 9,737 mail-in ballots arrived between the Nov. 15 and Nov. 21 counts – we also can tell how much happened in the waning days of in-person voting. There were at least 1,940,223 early in-person votes and 105,973 grace-period ballots, both numbers spiking from the Nov. 4 report.

As of the last count, Cass County reported zero mail-in ballots against 621 requested. Three counties had fewer than 20 unreturned mail ballots: Brown (250 of 269), Alexander (202 of 218) and Pope (255 of 270). At the bottom, McHenry County saw just 75.81% of its mailed ballots returned, while 20 counties cleared 90%, including Jasper County at 97.63% (all but 45 of 1,902), and 81 other jurisdictions reached at least 80%.

Altogether it’s clear more than half of participating Illinoisans are voting outside conventional Election Day precinct polling places. My wife and oldest child opted for the mail-in process and used a county website and text messaging to verify receipt. I cast my ballot the old-fashioned way; the entire process took fewer than 10 minutes.

I’ll leave the exit poll analysis and percent breakdown scrutiny to the political commentators. From a functional administrative standpoint, this cycle didn’t appear to have major hiccups in Illinois. It seems reasonable to assume every election from now until the 2028 general will see less participation and likely even more efficiency.

There’s a strong likelihood the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue of how long after Election Day states should be allowed to count mailed ballots. In Illinois, U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, has consistently failed to press the argument the state’s law is unconstitutional, but a Louisiana federal appeals panel recently invalidated a similar Mississippi law.

The same Mike Bost, on Jan. 7, 2021, said, “The Constitution is clear: state legislatures set the rules for states in conducting their elections.” That stance could explain why Bost and others in Congress consistently bypassed opportunities to federalize state elections.

The Supreme Court may well act where Congress idles.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.