Proposal to limit municipal primaries faces opposition

Provisions in an already controversial Senate bill sent to the governor's desk likely would reduce the number of municipal primary elections.

"That particular provision would make our job easier," said Linda Mitchell, director of elections at the Kane County clerk's office.

Currently, only some Illinois municipalities require primary elections because of their form of government. Among them are Naperville, Wheaton, Aurora, Elgin, North Aurora, Schaumburg, Palatine and Hoffman Estates.

State law in those towns requires primaries when the number of candidates is more than double the number of available seats on the ballot. The proposed change would require primaries only when the number of candidates is more than four times the number of seats.

For instance, every two years in Naperville four at-large seats on the city council are up for election. Under the current system, if nine or more candidates file for those seats, a primary has to be held in advance of the spring general election to whittle the field to a maximum of eight.

If the change is approved, a primary would only be held if 17 or more candidates sought the four seats.

A primary was held in February in Naperville to remove just one name from what began as a three-way race for mayor. It attracted just 15 percent of registered voters.

Councilman Doug Krause came in second in that primary to incumbent Mayor George Pradel and ahead of former Councilman Mary Ellingson, who was bumped from a spot in the general election that was held just two months later.

Krause also has run in primaries during his five terms on the council.

"It really was a waste of money to knock one person off since it was the only thing on that ballot," he said. "I don't think having 16 names on a ballot is any worse than the judges' ballot where they are just lists and lists and you have no idea who they are."

With elections getting more expensive to run each year because of early voting, area election officials welcome the proposed change.

"Due to the cost of running an election compared to the amount of voter turnout, we think this is going to be a plus for DuPage," said Doreen Nelson, assistant executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission.

In 2005, Nelson said the county spent $125,000 to run a primary. In 2007, it cost $353,290. While there were more primary races in 2007, she said the majority of the cost increase was because of staffing early voting stations.

But Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod said increasing the primary threshold requirement would create voter apathy and confusion.

"For instance, in my race, it would be difficult to sift through (four) candidates and it makes sense to have a primary and let the top two run it off," he said. "Besides, people are being taxed the same by the county for these primaries, it isn't going to be any more money. And you know you're not going to be seeing any of it coming back if they have less primaries."

Other proponents of keeping the status quo are park, school and other auxiliary taxing bodies that like to use primary elections to ask for tax increases when voter turnout is low.

"We have a long-standing policy of opposing any legislation that would restrict school boards from placing referendums on the ballots," said Jim Russell, a spokesman for the Illinois Association of School Boards. "They don't use these things frivolously. Sometimes it's a matter of urgency because the previous question failed and they need another chance."

The bill has been sent to Gov. Rod Blagojevich but is expected to meet with opposition because of another provision to raise the number of signatures needed on candidate petitions only in DuPage County.

Gerardo Cardenas, one of the governor's spokesmen, said Blagojevich had not seen it yet.