What drove voter turnout in some suburban counties this election?

Voter turnout in this past Tuesday’s election was largely contingent on tax hike proposals and the contentiousness of the races.

Turnout was up throughout the suburbs from four years ago when the same seats were up for grabs — except in Will County, which has seen steady decline since 2017, according to records from county election officials.

The largest spike was seen in Kane County, where there was a 10 percentage-point increase in turnout from 2021. Nearly 22% of all Kane County voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial results tallied by Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham’s office. That’s up from an 11.2% turnout in 2021.

In St. Charles, where retired judge Clint Hull defeated incumbent Mayor Lori Vitek, 36.7% of voters cast ballots.

“I think both candidates emphasized in our messaging how low (turnout) was in 2021,” Hull said. “We were both really hustling votes.”

There were 4,300 additional voters in the St. Charles mayor’s race Tuesday than in 2021, when only 3,849 votes were cast in total.

Hull believes turnout also was aided by a countywide sales tax hike proposal that was soundly defeated, as well as a heated school board race in St. Charles Unit District 303.

The mayoral race in Aurora, which saw challenger John Laesch unseat incumbent Richard Irvin, drew nearly 7,650 more voters Tuesday than the 2021 race. Aurora, the state’s second-largest city, is predominantly in Kane County, but also spills into Will, Kendall and DuPage counties.

DuPage County’s voter turnout increased from 16.6% in 2021 to nearly 21% this year. Several heated mayoral contests and party-contested township races appear to have spurred additional voters to the polls there.

Warrenville’s mayoral race saw nearly 550 more voters this year than in 2021. In Lisle, the mayor’s race tallied about 400 more voters this year than four years ago. In West Chicago, 2,000 more voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s race than the last time the seat was contested in 2017, records show.

Many DuPage County township races went to Democrats, some of which have been held by Republicans for decades.

DuPage GOP Chairman Kevin Coyne attributed Democratic successes in part to that party’s ability to get voters to embrace new methods of voting.

“The Democrats are excelling at vote-by-mail and it’s getting their low propensity voters to blindly vote for their D-backed candidates en masse,” he lamented in a letter to fellow county Republicans after Tuesday’s election.

Suburban Cook County voter turnout figures were up from 2021, but down from 2017. According to County Clerk Monica Gordon’s office, just under 17% of all suburban Cook voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election.

Still, some races were bigger draws than others.

A chippy Mount Prospect mayoral race pitting incumbent Paul Hoefert against challenger Trisha Chokshi saw nearly 1,300 more voters cast ballots than in 2021. Almost all of them went to Hoefert.

“I think it was a contentious race and a lot of things were said about me and my record,” Hoefert said. “I think people were tired of it and people saw through it.”

He called Tuesday’s results “a mandate” from voters to “keep the momentum going.”

Elsewhere in the suburbs, voter turnout was a mixed bag.

Turnout was largely stagnant in Lake County, which recorded 14.7% of eligible voters casting ballots Tuesday. That’s compared to a little more than 14% in 2021, records show.

Almost 14.7% of McHenry County voters cast ballots Tuesday as well, but that’s up from 9.5% in 2021. Officials believe the COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for keeping voters away four years ago.

In Will County, 15.5% of voters turned out Tuesday, according to unofficial results. That’s down from 16.7% turnout in 2021 and down again from an 18.4% turnout in 2017.