States are pushing to consolidate elections into fewer election days. Aligning municipal with gubernatorial and federal elections streamlines voting and could increase voter turnout.
The Illinois House Ethics and Elections Committee on Sept. 24 held a subject matter hearing on municipal election timing.
And the hearing’s timing couldn’t be better.
Illinois holds its municipal elections in February of odd years, which severely depresses voter turnout for mayoral and city council races across the state. Meanwhile, an increasing number of states are consolidating their municipal elections to align with statewide November elections. And Illinois should follow their lead.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ State Elections Legislative Database, 29 states have introduced legislation to consolidate municipal elections this year, with 12 states already enacting such laws.
As pointed out in the Chicago Policy Center’s 2025 report, How Chicago’s election timing suppresses voting, extensive literature points to the timing of elections greatly influencing voter turnout, with on-cycle elections typically doubling or tripling the overall turnout in local races. That would go a long way in Chicago, where February elections suppress voter turnout by 40%, compared to November elections.
Chicago should ideally establish better election timing through creation of a city charter, as is the case in many other big cities. Short of that, Illinois lawmakers could mirror the Texas model, where state law requires municipalities to pick from several uniform election dates, including those aligned with presidential and gubernatorial elections. Lawmakers could also take inspiration from the California Voter Participation Rights Act, which requires municipalities to consolidate their local elections with statewide elections if voter turnout in their standalone elections is at least 25% lower than the average turnout in the previous four statewide general elections.
Illinoisans deserve local leaders that represent the will of voters. Today, with a vast majority of voters not participating in local elections, those leaders too often represent voter apathy.
