Surprising DuPage County election results

[murielm99]

I am posting my son's email verbatim. He is an election judge and a Democratic activist. Here it is:

Yesterday, Naperville elected an African-American to the City Council for the first time ever. It's a non-partisan position but I'm reasonably certain he's a Democrat -- I think the township Dems dropped some campaign lit at my door for him last weekend.

DuPage township offices have basically been Republican patronage positions since the beginning of time. I live in Lisle Township, where the current supervisor had been elevated from being the township's lawyer to being appointed Clerk, later elected Clerk and eventually elected supervisor. This guy was very entrenched. He was ousted yesterday by a 6% margin and replaced with a Dem. One Lisle Township Trustee will be a Democrat.

It is even better in Naperville Township, which includes almost a third of Aurora. The Supervisor, Clerk, Highway Commissioner, and three of the four trustees will be Dems. That leave the Assessor (who was unopposed) and one trustee as the only Republicans holding township office.

Turnout was abysmally low yesterday: 16.7% overall, 13.4% in Naperville Township and 16.% in Lisle Township. We only processed 219 voters at my polling place yesterday, out of 1700 registered. Early voting was also very slow. These township Democratic organizations have never been able to get Dems elected to township office. It shows you that anything can happen in these off-year elections where practically no one votes.

In a traditionally Republican county that went 52-38 for Hillary, things may be starting to change.