Why does East St. Louis have its own board of elections, and what does it cost?
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- East St. Louis maintains an independent election board established in 1886.
- In 2025, the board cost East St. Louis $345,465 and St. Clair County $122,122.
- Dissolving the board requires a referendum or state action and hasn’t passed.
Heading to the polls in the metro-east for the Tuesday, March 17 primary? If you live in East St. Louis, you can’t just vote anywhere in St. Clair County.
That’s because East St. Louis has its own Board of Election Commissioners. Unlike most Illinois cities, East St. Louis runs its elections separately from the county, although the results are combined in races where jurisdictions overlap, such as countywide offices.
The East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners is the second-oldest election commission in the state, according to Kandrise Mosby, the board’s executive director.
The board was established in 1886, second in age only to Chicago’s election board. Apart from East St. Louis, the only other Illinois cities to run their own elections are Chicago, Bloomington, Rockford, Danville and Galesburg, Mosby said.
By population, East St. Louis is by far the smallest Illinois city to have its own election board, with an estimated 17,808 residents in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Unsurprisingly, Chicago’s population dwarfs the others, at about 2.7 million, while the remaining cities have populations between 27,981 and 147,486.
However, when the East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners was established, the city’s population was much more significant. East St. Louis’ population peaked in 1950, with more than 82,000 residents, when it was reportedly the fourth-largest city in the state.
The short answer as to why East St. Louis still runs its own elections despite its population plummet? The board can only be dissolved by ballot proposition, and although a referendum has appeared on East St. Louis ballots at least twice, it hasn’t passed.
The East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners has been the subject of some controversy. Opponents of the board say closing it could save East St. Louis hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Other concerns about the board have included alleged voter fraud and questions about the accuracy of voter registration rolls in the city.
East St. Louis is far from the only jurisdiction to come under fire for alleged voter fraud, with concerns about potential fraud increasing in the last few presidential elections. But while voter fraud does occasionally occur in the U.S., “fraud committed by voters is exceedingly rare,” according to research from Rutgers University.
When asked why multiple attempts to dissolve the board have failed, Mosby said some residents may prefer to have their own board for convenience.
“I think residents feel like it’s more convenient for them to come here for early voting,” Mosby said. “The polling places are here in the city, so I think that’s the main reason.”
What does East St. Louis’ election board cost to run?
In 2025, running the East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners cost St. Clair County $122,122, Mosby said, while East St. Louis spent $345,465.
The board employs Mosby, an assistant director, three commissioners, an administrative assistant, an election specialist and a part-time attorney, and is under the auspices of a chief judge.
To those who are in favor of dissolving the board for cost-saving purposes, Mosby said there would still be a cost to serve East St. Louis voters within St. Clair County.
“I don’t know if there would be much of a savings if it was combined with the county,” Mosby said.
Some costs — such as ballots, voting equipment and election judges — would be unlikely to decrease but instead just shift to St. Clair County locations, she continued.
The primary potential savings of combining the city and the county’s elections would be that East St. Louis would no longer need its salaried commissioners. However, to serve a greater number of voters, it’s possible St. Clair County would need to hire more staff to process voter registrations, Mosby said.
“The East St. Louis Election authority was established by the State of Illinois along with several others that operate in other counties that function, as ours does, outside those other counties clerk’s election functions,” St. Clair County Clerk Thomas Holbrook wrote in an email to the News-Democrat. “The only way these election authorities can be ended is by action of the State legislature or citizen referendum within the election authority. The County Clerk has no say either way.”
East St. Louis has 14,707 registered voters, compared to 172,454 in St. Clair County’s jurisdiction.
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