Board of Election Commissioners – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

The Board of Election Commissioners is established under state elections law and technically is part of the judicial branch, but receives operational funding from the City of Chicago. BoEC oversees Chicago’s polling places and ballot processes, including vote-by-mail.

• 2027 will be one of BoEC’s four-year budget peak years, coinciding with the municipal elections and the ramp-up to the presidential election in 2028. This year’s proposed budget includes multimillion dollar increases in multiple appropriations associated with election operations, including the extra hire, professional and technical services, freight and express charges, outside graphic services, postage, and rental of property categories.
  
• The current proposal makes no net adjustment to budgeted headcount at BoEC. (Temporary election staff are budgeted separately  under the Extra Hire appropriation.)

• Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, BoEC spent on average 61.8% of its locally funded budget. In 2025, the most recent budget year for which full-year actuals are available, BoEC underspent by $13.4 million (67.3%) in contract services and $1.2 million (16%) in personnel services. 

Board of Election Commissioners appropriations are cyclical, with expenses rising and falling during election years and off-years. A significant portion of the department’s election-year workforce consists of temporary hires, while permanent staff levels stay relatively consistent year-to-year. BoEC appropriations tend to peak every four years in the odd-numbered years preceding Presidential elections, when the city holds municipal elections. 

From 2011-2026, BoEC’s budget grew at an average rate of 15.3% annually, or 12.9% when adjusted for inflation through 2025, compared to a citywide average rate of 5.5% (inflation-adjusted 3.2%). The current proposal would increase the department’s appropriations by 73.9% from the previous year.

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out “fringe” pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae. 

Based on the city’s fringe formulae, the BoEC fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 21.4% from 2018-2026, compared to a citywide average of 26.8%. 

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past four complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, BoEC spent on average 61.8% of its locally funded budget, one of the lowest rates of budget spend, compared to a citywide average of 86.6%.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Because BoEC hires temporary staff for election cycles, the budgeted full-time headcount of the office has remained relatively unchanged year-over-year. Slight position cuts over the years have resulted in an average annual rate of change for BoEC’s headcount of -0.1% from 2011-2026, the same as the citywide average for the same period.

The current proposal makes no net adjustment to budgeted headcount at BoEC.

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, BoEC averaged a 17.6% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%. 

12 of the department’s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data): 

The 2027 proposal makes no changes to budgeted staffing at BoEC. Positions and titles remain the same as the previous year.

BoEC is entirely locally funded in the 2027 proposal, with all appropriations made from the corporate fund, the same as in the previous year. 

Largest Appropriations

2027’s budget proposal includes the BoEC staffing ramp-up for municipal elections and the presidential election in the following year. The appropriations for extra hire and outside contracting are larger than the department’s full-time personnel service categories, with relatively large appropriations in infrastructure and service categories such as postage and rental of facilities as well. 

In 2025, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, BoEC spent only 47.1% of its locally-funded budget, underspending by $13.4 million (67.3%) in contract services and $1.2 million (16%) in personnel services. 

Change from Previous Year

BoEC’s 2027 budget includes multimillion dollar increases in multiple appropriations associated with election operations, including the extra hire, professional and technical services, freight and express charges, outside graphic services, postage, and rental of property categories.