Illinois needs a return to cumulative voting

February 4, 2023

By Jim Nowlan

To reduce severe partisan and geographic polarization in our state, Illinois needs a return to cumulative voting. What, you say? From 1872 to 1982, Illinois benefited overall from a unique voting system that basically guaranteed minority party representation in the state’s 59 House districts, each of which elected three members.

Upset by post-Civil War rancor between Republican Chicago (in that period) and Democratic Downstate Illinois, Joseph Medill, the legendary editor-owner of the Chicago Tribune, came up with the unique plan for the 1870 Illinois Constitutional Convention. The system worked this way: With three representatives to be elected from each district, voters were given three votes—which they could cumulate, that is, cast all three votes for one candidate, if they wished. Or one-and-a-half votes for each of two candidates.

So, the minority party in a district quickly learned to nominate only one candidate, directing its partisans to cast all their votes for the one candidate. This ensured that the minority party would elect one of the three reps.

I represented a rural district in the Illinois House half a century ago, and found these benefits from cumulative voting: There were Chicago Republicans and rural Democrats, in sharp contrast to the present. Inside my Republican caucus, I benefited from the sage, intelligent viewpoints of Chicago GOP reps like Elroy Sandquist and Art Telcser. In the Democratic caucus, voices from rural and suburban Dems often leavened the perspectives of their Chicago colleagues.

The system also weakened the power of leaders. Mayor Richard Daley, who dominated the Chicago legislative delegation in my era, couldn’t tell the Dem lawmakers elected from suburban districts how to vote. Compromise and cross-regional understanding were greater then than now.

This all came to mind when recently I received a cry for help from a Downstate economic development official. A catch-all, end-of-legislative session bill had included a provision that took away local control over enterprise zones created for economic development, and gave it to the State of Illinois, especially as to siting solar farms on in these zones.

Now, we’re all for solar power, yet enterprise zones have often spent scores of millions of dollars outfitting their properties with roads, water, even their own railroads, to lure employers and their jobs. Solar power might not be the highest use for many such zones. Readers might consider this legislation minor, but not my friend, and his community.

This takeover action likely would not have happened under cumulative voting. A Dem House member from my friend’s three-member district would have been alerted, and he would argue in the Democratic caucus that the provision be dropped.

Cumulative voting wasn’t perfect; no voting system is. As it worked, there was little competition in the November elections, because in many districts the majority party nominated two candidates onto the ballot, and the minority, one. So, three candidates for three slots. But there is no more competition today, because gerrymandering makes it impossible for the minority party to have a chance, so no one runs.

The old flaw could be overcome by requiring each party to nominate at least two candidates.

Overall, Joseph Medill’s system worked to bring the state’s partisan lawmakers together, rather than, as today, at the other’s throats. I recall frequent, enjoyable, sometimes riotous, dinners with Democratic colleagues after a day’s legislative session.

It’ll never happen, say my insider friends, cuz’ the overwhelming Democratic majority is happy with the status quo, and with a bought-and-paid-for Democratic state Supreme Court that protects its party careerists from term limits and gerrymandering reform.

But, never say never. In 2028, there will be a vote of the people on whether to hold a new state constitutional convention, as required by the present charter. Voters of all stripes might just be of a mood to say it’s time for a change, that is, a new constitution. After all, contrary to Gov. Pritzker’s proclamations, Illinois has real problems—declining population, a miserable business climate, poor urban and rural school achievement, a child care system that has been under a federal court order to do better, for 30 years(!), and a reputation for crime and violence.

A new convention that revived cumulative voting could reduce state political discord and increase opportunities for both minority party and even independent candidates to use the power of cumulation to win seats in the legislature.

Oh, I forgot to mention: this enterprise zone legislation that denies local control, and passed by the Chicago-centric Democratic Party—exempts Chicago’s zones from its provisions.

Nowlan served in the Illinois House from 1969-73, and was Gov. Richard Ogilvie’s runningmate for lieutenant governor in 1972. He is co-author, with Melissa Mouritsen and Kent Redfield, of “The Struggle for Power in Illinois: Politics and Government in the Prairie State,” forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press, 2023.