Total votes for Richie Daley in 1999: 429,746
Total votes for Richie Daley in 2003: 363,553
Change in numbers between 1999 & 2003: -66,193
Percent change in raw vote for Daley: -15%

Total voter turnout in 1999: 597,591
Total voter turnout in 2003: 463,332
Drop in voter turnout in real numbers: 134,259
% drop in voter turnout between 1999 and 2003: 22%

Registered voters in Chicago, 1983: 1.6 million (the year Harold Washington first ran for Mayor successfully)
Registered voters in Chicago, 2003: 1.43 million
Drop in registered voters between 1983 and 2003: 170,000

Chicago population, 2000: 2,896,016 (Chicago is challenging these numbers as too low)
Chicago population, 1990: 2,783,726
Chicago population, 1980: 3,005,072
% change in Chicago population, 1980 to 2000: roughly 3% (this number is in dispute)

Conclusions: fewer people are voting, and fewer people are voting for Daley, in significant numbers.

Two poles of debate: fewer people are registered to vote or bother to vote today because 1)everybody is extremely happy with Richie Daley and his minions; 2) everybody has given up on the hopeless corruption of the electoral system in Chicago, and across the country generally.

Question to Angry Irish: where is the sweeping public mandate for Daley in these numbers?

I love the internet.

sources: chicagoelections.com (Chicago Board of Elections), www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/population.html (Chicago Public Library), student-voices.org/news/index.php3 (Chicago Sun-Times)