Expanded early voting a bust

16% drop despite local races

Voting in Chicago has never been more convenient, with 18 days of early voting at 51 locations, nearly twice as many sites as in November.

But 10 days into early voting in a city election that's supposed to generate even more enthusiasm, 16 percent fewer voters had taken advantage of the convenience.

As of Wednesday, there were 6,882 ballots cast, down from 8,229 by the 10th day of early voting in the statewide election.

Chicago Elections Board Chairman Langdon Neal called it a big disappointment. And he said he can't understand why -- in spite of the cold, snowy weather and a relatively low-key mayoral race.

"Generally, the interest is greatest at the local level. You would think that, when you have a lot of ... contested aldermanic [races], you'd get people interested in coming out. After all, most politics is local," Neal said.

"Why they're not taking advantage of it, I'm not sure. This is still new to our voters. But we would hope that we would be building from each election on participation. In some states -- for instance, in Florida -- they vote as many as half their total votes in early voting."

Neal pegged the cost of early voting "in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars." Every one of the sites is staffed with equipment and up to four board employees.

"We have made a big effort ... and kind of gone out on a limb with having 51 sites. ... We want to make sure our voters are aware of it because, obviously, if they're not gonna take advantage of it, we're gonna have a hard time justifying the tremendous expense," the chairman said.

Feb. 22 is the last day for early voting. Voters can go to any of the 51 sites. But you can find the site nearest to you at chicagoelections.com.

fspielman@suntimes.com