The new ward boundaries were adopted by the Chicago City Council on May 19, 2022, as required every 10 years after the U.S. Census. The
Illinois General Assembly recently passed legislation that gave the Board the authority to create new precincts containing up to 1,800 registered voters.
The Chicago Board of Elections is now creating 1,290 precincts across all 50 Wards in Chicago, for a reduction total of 779 precincts. The average number of precincts per ward is 26, and the average number of voters per precinct is 1,165.
Just previously, the City of Chicago had 2,069 voter precincts, with an average of 550-750 voters per precinct. For comparison during the last redistricting process in 2010, the Chicago Board of Elections reduced its precincts from 2,570 to 2,069, for a total reduction of 501 precincts.
Many voters in Chicago will find themselves in new wards and precincts or assigned to new polling places. Polling places will be finalized by early October 2022 ahead of the November 8, 2022 General Election. Voters can check their new information by going here:
https://www.chicagoelections.gov/en/your-voter-information.html
All Chicago voters will soon receive a new voter registration card in the mail notifying them of their new ward and precinct information ahead of the November 8, 2022 General Election.
The amount of polling places in Chicago will not drastically change for the next few election cycles. In the 2022 Primary Election, the City of Chicago had a total of 1,043 polling places to serve 2,069 precincts, with many polling places serving double or triple duty. With 1,290 total new precincts, a similar number of polling places can more effectively serve those precincts.
The most immediate change voters can expect to see is the number of election judges needed for each election in Chicago. Each election, the Board works to staff each precinct polling place with five election judges. With 1,290 total new precincts, that target number of judges would now be 6,450, instead of the current 10,345 target.
