Du Page County voters who go to the polls Tuesday will be faced with ballots that are top-heavy with mayors and Republicans. But what the local elections may lack in variety they make up for in volume.
Included on the 286 ballots, the most ever for a Du Page consolidated election, will be 568 candidates seeking 407 offices in 9 townships, 33 municipalities, 35 park districts and 13 library districts.
Polling places in all 644 Du Page precincts will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee balloting at the Du Page County Center in Wheaton and at 12 municipal offices throughout the county will continue until the close of business Monday.
Voters will be asked to make a choice for mayor in about half the 23 municipalities in Kane County, where a total of 492 candidates are seeking township, municipal, park district and library district offices. There are 84 ballot styles in Kane County.
Based on the voter turnout in Du Page County for similar elections in 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1987 when, on average, 27 percent of the county`s registered voters went to the polls, more than 103,000 of Du Page`s 385,006 registered voters are expected to cast ballots Tuesday.
Kane County has 104,545 people registered to vote Tuesday.
Voters in the two counties will be asked to decide a combined total of 34 public policy issues.
Nineteen mayors, including five of the seven mayoral candidates running unopposed, are seeking re-election. Women are running for mayor in five Du Page towns, including Villa Park, where two are involved in a head-to-head contest. About 30 percent of all the Du Page candidates in Tuesday`s election are women. There are male-female contests for mayor in Warrenville, Hanover Park and Addison. In Bolingbrook there is a write-in contest for mayor.
A four-way race for mayor in Glendale Heights and three-way races for mayor in Oakbrook Terrace, Lisle, Burr Ridge and Elmhurst provide the most crowded mayoral fields.
Five Republican incumbents, including three who are unopposed, and four GOP newcomers, including one who is unopposed, are running for township supervisor in Du Page`s nine partisan township elections. All of Du Page`s current township supervisors are Republicans. In fact, all 72 township offices in Du Page are held by Republicans.
Sixteen referendum proposals are on the ballot in various parts of Du Page. There is one countywide referendum. In Kane County, voters in various parts of the county will be asked to decide 18 public policy issues.
Mayors are seeking re-election in Addison, Aurora, Bartlett, Bensenville, Bloomingdale, Bolingbrook, Burr Ridge, Elmhurst, Hanover Park, Itasca, Lombard, Oakbrook Terrace, Roselle, Warrenville, West Chicago, Westmont, Willowbrook, Winfield and Woodridge. The mayors in Bensenville, Itasca, Roselle, Willowbrook and Woodridge are running unopposed, as are the mayoral candidates in Clarendon Hills and Hinsdale, who are not incumbents.
The contested mayoral race in Glen Ellyn will be the town`s first since the mid-1970s and marks a rare attempt by an independent candidate to challenge the village caucus slate.
Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar is facing a challenge from Village Board member Wayne Horne, who is running a write-in campaign.
In Kane County, contested elections for mayor are on the ballot in Aurora, Geneva, North Aurora, West Dundee, Carpentersville, Algonquin, South Elgin, Hampshire and St. Charles.
The five-to-four edge that Du Page Democrats hold over Republicans in top-of-the-ballot positions in the county`s nine townships appears to be the minority party`s only numerical advantage going into Tuesday`s partisan contests.
Based solely on the number of candidates they have slated, Democrats hold little more than a 50-50 chance in the uphill struggle to win election to any post in township government in Du Page. Of all 72 township offices up for election-a supervisor, clerk, assessor, highway commissioner and four trustees will be elected in each township-Du Page Democrats are contesting in only 38 races.
Du Page Democrats haven`t held township office since the mid-1970s when a few Democrats were swept into office amid the Watergate scandal.
A review of the Tuesday ballot in Du Page shows that Democrats certainly will not be assessing any property in the county for at least another four years because none is on the ballot to run for assessor anywhere in the county.
Du Page Democrats also won`t have much to say about township roads either because they don`t have a candidate running for highway commissioner in five of nine townships or a candidate running for supervisor or clerk in four of nine townships. Only one Democratic candidate is on the ballot in Naperville and Wayne Townships. Two are on the ballot in Milton Township.
By contrast, Democratic candidates are running for seven of eight township offices in Lisle, Winfield and York Townships.
Propositions ranging from whether Du Page residents should foot the cost of a countywide 911 emergency telephone system to whether Hanover Park should have curbside recycling are among 16 referendum proposals to be voted on Tuesday.
Except for the countywide vote on whether Du Page should impose a surcharge of up to 50 cents a month per telephone line to pay for an enhanced 911 system, all the other proposals on the ballot are confined to a single jurisdiction.
In Kane County, residents will have to decide public policy issues ranging from funding 911 emergency systems in nine municipalities to the continued ban on the sale of liquor in Big Rock Township.
Naperville Unit School District 203, in Du Page County, will have one of the biggest fiscal questions to answer: whether the school district can sell up to $25 million in bonds to build an elementary school, to buy three portable classrooms and to build and equip additions at 14 schools.
