Overall, the turnout in the June 28 primary election in Cook County (i.e., Chicago), was dismal.  In a city plagued by crime and a three-quarters-of-a-billion-dollar budget deficit (around $733 million, to be precise), only 20% of the population could be bothered to vote.

It makes me less sympathetic to the travails of the many innocents caught in Chicago's crossfire when I read how few of them care enough even to try to make a difference.  However, one demographic did manage to bring 25% of its members to the polls: Cook County detainees who have been charged but not convicted.  You can imagine what their values are.

The story comes from the Block Club of Chicago:

Chicago Board of Elections data shows dismal voter turnout for the June 28 primary, with just 20 percent of all registered voters casting a ballot citywide, less than the 29 percent of primary voters who turned out in 2018 and 2020. By comparison, about 25 percent of the detainees at Cook County Jail voted, with 1,384 votes cast from the jail out of an average June jail population of 5,560, according to the the Cook County Sheriff's Department and the Chicago Board of Elections.

In the 24th Ward where the jail is located, just 15 percent of registered voters cast a ballot, lower than both the city as a whole and the jail population.

The overwhelming majority of people in jail are presumed innocent since they have not yet had their day in court, so it is paramount they still have access to the polls, said Alex Boutros, a community organizer for Chicago Votes, a voting advocacy group.

Image: Chicago skyline in 2016 by Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz.  CC BY-SA 4.0.

Nor was Boutros shy about saying why it's so important that those charged with crimes in a judicial system already under George Soros's indirect control, thanks to the $2-million check he sent to a super-PAC supporting D.A. Kim Foxx's campaign:

Many of the roles on the ballot, like the Cook County Sheriff and appellate and circuit judges, wield tremendous power over the justice system. That makes it essential for people accused of a crime who are directly involved in the courts or the jail to have access to the polls, Boutros said.

"If an elected official does not have to rely on the vote of people who are incarcerated, then they will not prioritize those people's needs," Boutros said.

On the one hand, Boutros is absolutely right.  Those who have not been convicted should have all the rights of citizens.  But given the criminal free-for-all that is Chicago, it would have been nice if a few more law-abiding citizens had shown up to cast their vote.

I have no doubt that Chicago elections, which have had a criminally corrupt election system going back at least 100 years, are disheartening for those who want to cast a meaningful vote.  However, older Chicagoans remember a time when Chicago was corrupt but well managed.  Today's Democrats can't be bothered with the management part.  They're too busy tearing down America's infrastructure in pursuit of an Orwellian utopia — and unless Chicago's sane people start at least trying to vote, things are only going to get more feral in that once beautiful city.

Hat tip: Peter von Buol.