There was one other stadium-related issue on the ballot on Tuesday, and it was a weird one: Voters in eight precincts on Chicago’s West Side were offered a chance to decide on the question “Shall the people of Chicago provide any taxpayer subsidy to the Chicago Bears to build a new stadium?” and overwhelmingly said “no”:
With five of eight precincts reporting, “no” garnered 79 percent of the referendum vote compares to 21 percent for “yes,” according to the Chicago Board of Elections…
Just over 3,000 votes were cast on the ballot referendum with five of eight precincts reporting.
What impact does this have on the Bears‘ stadium plans, and why only five precincts? Nothing, and that’s a bit of a story: Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn first tried in March to get a citywide nonbinding referendum put on the ballot, but the city council didn’t approve it. So instead he gathered signatures around his West Side home to put it on the ballot locally, making it symbolic as well as nonbinding.
That said, Quinn, who has spent his time in office since leaving office in 2015 mostly pursuing referendum drives, says it’s an indication that voters don’t want to give public money to the Bears’ owners, which we pretty much already knew from polling, but sure, now we effectively have a more in-depth poll of 3,000 West Siders as well. Not that this matters much since the current governor has already been polled and is 100% against the plan, and the city doesn’t seem to have the money to do it on its own, but there are worse ways to use an election, I suppose.
Wait, I’m confused. It says “Just over 3,000 votes were cast on the ballot referendum,” but that it was 79% to 21% against. Wouldn’t that mean “2,370 Chicagoans note ‘no’ on public money for Bears stadium?”
But also only five of eight precincts had reported! Also also, poetic headline license.
Most recent update I’ve seen: “The no vote won decisively, with 77.7% of voters casting “no” votes out of more than 5,000 votes cast.”
I thought no-one was ever going to have to vote again after Tuesday?
Seems to me I heard somebody say that somewhere.
Good one…
This vote was misleading. “No” only got the most votes because “Hell No!” wasn’t an option.