Voter turnout Tuesday was the lowest in at least 45 years for a contested Rockford mayoral race

Apathy, stress and changing demographics contribute to low turnout

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Jody Nerhood Edwards has voted in every election that she can remember since she was 18.

The 68-year-old sat out Tuesday’s vote to decide Rockford’s mayor.

The reason: “Total apathy,” she said, adding that she’s been disgusted with politics since President Donald Trump was elected.

Data from the Rockford Board of Elections shows that Edwards was not alone in her disinterest in Tuesday’s mayoral race.

Voter turnout on Tuesday is on track to be the lowest for a contested Rockford mayoral race on records going back to 1981.

There were 16,706 ballots cast out of 89,607 registered voters as of Wednesday night for a turnout of less than 19%, according to the Board of Elections. While that number will increase as mail-in ballots filter in over the next two weeks, it’s still likely to remain a record low for a contested mayoral race.

There were 4,494 mail-in ballots out of 9,592 sent out that were yet to be received as of Wednesday, according to Jorge Parades, executive director of the Rockford Board of Elections. Mail-in ballots post-marked by April 1 can be counted until the election is certified on April 15.

However, even if all of those ballots were returned it would only increase the number of votes cast to 21,200. That would be a turnout of nearly 24%. That scenario is unlikely, Parades said. Even if it did happen, it would still be the lowest turnout in a contested mayoral race with the exception of the 22% rate in 2013, when Mayor Larry Morrissey won a third term.

The lowest turnout was 11% in 2021, when Mayor Tom McNamara was uncontested in his reelection bid.

“I think if there would have been somebody running against Tom that was actually threatening him, so to speak, in the race it might have been — if it had been been closer there would’ve been a better turnout,” Edwards said.

As it turns out, McNamara was never threatened in his bid for a third term.

The mayor cruised to victory over independent challenger Derrick Kunz by garnering more than 78% of the vote. That’s the widest margin of victory in any Rockford mayor’s race on records going back to 1981. The next highest was Mayor Charles Box’s reelection victory in 1993 with more than 70% of the vote.

The combination of a mayor’s race that wasn’t anticipated to be close and large number of uncontested City Council races contributed to the low turnout, said Bob Evans, an associate professor of economics and political science at Rockford University.

There was only one contested Rockford City Council race on Tuesday, despite all 14 seats being up for election. There were six contested races in the February primary, with each of the winners then uncontested in the general election.

“If we had hotly contested City Council races at the same time we had a hotly contested mayoral race, then you might see some increased turnout,” Evans said. “But if you have no contest at the City Council level and a putative contest at the mayoral level, that’s just not going to generate turnout.”

Edwards said McNamara would have had her vote, but he hadn’t done enough for her North Main Street neighborhood to compel her to go to the polls for a race that wasn’t expected to be close.

“If I had voted, I would’ve voted for Tom, but he hasn’t really done anything for my neighborhood that I can see,” she said. “He’s worked on all the other neighborhoods and brought a lot of beautification, but I got to say it’s a case of what has he done for my area.”

Evans said changing demographics, including fewer Baby Boomers who are reliable voters, also plays a role in falling turnout over the past 45 years. He also said mayoral races in Illinois used to coincide with presidential years, but that changed in the early 1970s. Presidential elections often have higher turnout than city elections. For example, Rockford’s turnout has been higher than 60% for seven out of the last eight presidential elections. It was 57% this past November.

Evans also noted that voter satisfaction surveys have been near record lows.

“People are just sour right now,” he said. “You can tell someone it’s your duty to turnout … but people are not politically energized or politically motivated. That you can see, I think, from top to bottom in the country right now.”

Melissa Bice, a Rockford native who runs a home-based bakery business while raising three children, has been an on and off voter in local elections over the years. These days, she said, the political vitriol on social media is so stressful that she tries to avoid it altogether.

“If I just see anything political I just automatically scroll, because just seeing the arguments and the fighting and the bickering causes me anxiety,” she said. “Since I scroll past everything so quickly, I forget stuff is happening until I see friends posting their voted stickers.”

Bice avoided the stress of social media politics so much that by the time she tuned in to the Rockford mayor’s race, she felt she didn’t leave herself enough time to learn about the candidates to make an informed decision.

“I also don’t know half the time if anyone’s telling the truth, and I feel like half the time I don’t know if my vote will matter if they might flip anyways, or if they’re lying to get votes,” she said.

Rockford resident Chenaire Barmore said he has tried to stress the importance of voting to others in the community, but he said many are turned off because they see political fighting without learning about candidates’ policies. He successfully got a few first-time voters to go to the polls on Tuesday.

“I was able to convince them after talking and preaching for a while,” he said. “We need to continue to advocate and push young people who are turning 18 to get out and vote for the first time and make sure the policies are at the forefront when we’re trying to educate people on who to vote for. Let them see every candidate running, and let them read the policies that will affect their everyday lives.”

Barmore said transportation can be another barrier for voting. “Educating people on bus schedules and ride-sharing programs will help a lot, especially for more impoverished communities,” he said.

Changing the trend of dropping voter turnout in municipal elections will be difficult because of the multitude of contributing causes, said Evans, the Rockford University professor.

“It’s not one overriding cause. It’s a series of causes all contributing to the same result, which is pretty depressingly low turnout,” Evans said. “It would be simpler if there were one overriding cause, but I think it’s a bunch of things all trending in the same direction.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas