THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM OF CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY

113 Pages·05.289 MB·English

by  CONROY, DENNIS

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
D ate July 26_________________ 195V
Conroy, B« Dennis____________________________ September. 24, 192V
Author Birth Date
The Electoral System of Chicago and Cook .County
Title of Dissertation
.Political Science__________ Master of Arts___________ August., 1951___
Department or School Degree Convocation
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discretion, upon the request of individuals or institutions and at their expense.
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM OF CHICAGO AND COOK COUNTY
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO
THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
BY
E. DENNIS CONROY
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
AUGUST, 1951

CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES........................................... iii
INTRODUCTION ................................................ 1
Chapter
I. STRUCTURE AND PRACTISE OF ELECTION ADMINISTRATION. 6
County Judge
Board of Election Commissioners
Precinct Judges and Clerks of Election
Party Officials
Summary
II. REGISTRATION OF VOTERS........................... 27
III. THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS......................... 39
Process of Voting
Ballot Counting
Voting Machines
Summary
bS
IV. CITY ELECTIVE OFFICES.............................
The Non-Partisan City Council (Aldermanic)
Elections
The Mayoralty Elections
Offices of the Municipal Court
Summary
V. COUNTY ELECTIVE OFFICES........................... 66
Board of County Commissioners
Office of the County Clerk
The County Fee Officials
The Other General County Elected Officials
Judges of the County Courts
The Sanitary District Trustees
Summary
CONCLUSIONS.............................................. 86
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................. 106
ii
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Registration in Chicago............................ 36
2. Votes Cast in Chicago Aldermanic Elections, 1939-51 • 56
3. Votes Cast in Chicago Mayoralty Elections, 1935-51 • 60
k. Votes Cast in Several Judicial Elections in
Cook County ....................... . . . . . . . . . 81
5. Local Public Officials for Whom Each Elector In
Chicago May Vote, 1920 and 1951.................... 89
iii
INTRODUCTION
A study of the government which affects the city of
Chicago quickly reveals a complex situation which can be found in
few large cities. I was tempted to write "Metropolitan11 Chicago
but this would give an element of unity to the situation which is
not, in fact, existent. For when we speak of the government which
affects the citizens we cannot talk of a single, dominant entity
but, rather, must speak in terms of a many sided organism with
many semi-detached arms and several separate thinking brains.
Citizens, through the years, have devoted energy into the reformu­
lation of its parts and spent money on the maintenance of its phys­
ical being only to see it thrash about as usual with no great im­
provement in rational action, aim or purpose.
What are the controls that the voter has over this out-of-
place body? The complex electoral system by which the citizens of
Chicago choose legislative, executive and judicial representatives
to run their government has not been the subject of academic con­
cern for over thirty years. In 1917 the highly active Chicago
Bureau of Public Efficiency put out its last plea for unification
of the local governments in Chicago. Since that time many changes
in the government have taken place. The severe dangers to efficient
government have not been remedied but many local modifications sug­
gested by this and other civic groups have been adopted including
the loss of autonomy by several local townships, integration of the
1
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many park governments and the election of one alderman from each
ward. The interests of this group, however, were primarily in
the realm of excess public expenditures and hence they concen­
trated on the money-saving, efficiency aspect of reorganization.
They did not attempt to analyze the electoral system as such.
During the thirties a series of research projects, in­
stituted under Professor Charles Merriam of the University of
Chicago, shed considerable light on the government of the metro­
politan region of Chicago. His book covered many of the complex
facets of government: schools, police, sanitary district,
courts, etc., but the electoral system was not made a specific
part of the project. About the same time one of his former stu­
dents, Albert Lepawsky, published a book on Home Rule for Metro­
politan Chicago^- in which the need for reform entered into his
comments on elections but was subordinated to the greater demand
for home rule which, in turn, affected the election machinery.
Three years previously Lepawsky also did a doctor's dis-
O
sertation on the judicial system of metropolitan Chicago. This
all-inclusive research on the courts in the area still accurately
describes the present situation and makes further research in
this area repetitive. It did not include a comprehensive treat­
ment of the election of the judges to the city and county courts,
however, or of the clerks and bailiffs of these courts.
•^Albert Lepawsky, Home Rule for Metropolitan Chicago
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935)*
^Lepawsky, The Judicial System of Metropolitan Chicago
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932).
3
This study is concerned with the nature of the electoral
system in which the Chicago voter participates, its basis instate
legislation and the major changes through which it has undergone.
It will bring in all the important elective offices which affect
the region under analysis. In doing this it will use as criteria
for the evaluation of these positions the politico-administrative
consequences of such an organization and will suggest changes and
major modifications which are necessary in order to carry out the
theory of democratic control over local government.
While the primary objective of the study is data collec­
tion and description, the author believes that a study of the
electoral system is meaningless without a criterion of evaluation
which includes the overlapping jurisdictions of the city and
county governments and the administrative difficulties that arise.
The author believes that the relation between the city government
and the government of Cook County is unique in its lack of effi­
ciency and duplication of duties. In this sense it should be
noted that while Cook County enjoys the full powers shared by
other counties in Illinois, approximately eighty-five per cent of
the population and wealth of Cook County is concentrated in the
city of Chicago. Thus, due to the size of its jurisdiction, the
Chicago government has to encompass practically all of the func­
tions of the county in order to serve its people. By state law
the county also performs most of the same functions so the possi­
bility of overlapping jobs is obvious.
With this in mind it seems necessary to set down at the
beginning several points or criteria which will serve as a
framework in which the data and description of the electoral
system will fit.
1. The major consideration of any electoral system is
usually considered to he the need for a short ballot. If duly
registered voters of the community are to decide in free elections
who is going to run their government the voters should be able to
acquaint themselves with the record of each candidate and, on the
basis of this information, make individual choices in agreement
with their own views. A satisfactory evaluation of this sort is
not possible with a ballot that contains the names of scores or
hundreds of officials who hold public office. An accepted rule
in determining which men should be elected by the people is that
only offices which are purely policy-making in character need to
be so elected. Administrative officials who carry out the policy
decided upon by other officials should be appointed by the major
executive officers who can then be held responsible for the ad­
ministration of their programs. It thus becomes important, in
determining the composition of the ballot, to determine which
policy-making jobs should be "visible11 to tne voters and to es­
tablish areas from which they are elected that are small enough
to enable the candidates to conveniently make their views known
to all the people in their constituency.
2. Another electoral need which the author believes is
important is that city and county elections be held separately
from other national and state elections. The author feels that
this is desirable because joint elections, as are now held in
Cook County, lead to a larger number of candidates in a single
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election and also make it harder for the voters to evaluate each
official on the basis of merit rather than party backing. This
is especially true in the case of non-partisan elections which
the author feels are desirable in most cases on the municipal
level.
3. There should be fewer elections in Chicago and Cook
County. If the public is going to take an interest in the elec­
tions and evaluate each candidate in the best possible manner
then they should not be overburdened by the large number of times
that they have to do it. Apathy, which leads to non-voting, is
especially dangerous if we are to have elections that are not ccn-
trolled by a small, highly organized minority. Demanding too
much from the electorate can lead to disinterest which subsequent­
ly has the tendency to take control of the elections away from
the people and put it into the hands of the highest organized
party.
These three considerations form the background for the
author's evaluation of the data and his suggestions regarding
modifications of the government of Chicago and Cook County which
he feels will lead to a more favorable electoral system for
Chicago.