The Chicago Board of Elections recently released preliminary election results for the 2020 Presidential Election and the data shows despite record turnout nationwide, turnout on the West Side was actually lower than 2016.
The data shows that voter turnout in the four wards that Austin Weekly news services was significantly lower than the 72 percent turnout rate citywide.
Turnout in the 24th, 28th, 29th and 37th wards was 59 percent, 64 percent, 67 percent and 62 percent, respectively.
In all but the 24th Ward, turnout was lower in 2020 than it was in 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost narrowly to President Donald Trump. Most notably, turnout in the 37th Ward was down 6 percent from its 2016 level.
As in 2016, the Democratic presidential candidate, this time former Vice President Joe Biden, won the West Side overwhelmingly.
Biden won the citywide vote 83 percent to Trump’s 16 percent. Biden’s win percentage in the West Side wards ranged from 87 percent in the 29th Ward to 93 percent in the 24th and 37th wards.
The West Side also voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Fair Tax referendum, the ballot measure that would have changed the state’s constitution to allow for the transition from a flat income tax to a graduate income tax.
Although the referendum failed statewide, voters in the city favored the measure 71 percent to 28 percent.
On the West Side, support for the Fair Tax ranged from 79 percent in the 29th Ward to 86 percent in the 24th Ward.
