The 2022 primary elections saw a lower voter turnout than the 2018 primary in both DuPage and Will counties, as the candidates now turn their attention to the November general elections.
Voter Turnout
According to Will County Clerk, Lauren Staley Ferry, Will County reported 18.6% voter turnout, lower than the 22% turnout in 2018. Jean Kaczmarek, DuPage County Clerk, said the county had a 21% voter turnout, lower than the 25% turnout in 2018.
“The summer primary election definitely threw people off, or they were just busy,” said Ferry. “Midterm primaries are usually low turnout anyway, but in Will County I try to have every option available for voters so they don’t miss out on the ability to vote,” said Ferry,
One alternative for voting in-person were mail-in ballots, which people in both counties took advantage of. “We had under 35,000 mail voting applications and we’ve had over 20,000 of those counted so far,” said Kaczmarek. “There are some more coming in and we will count eligible mail ballots until 14 days after the election. By eligible, they have to be in a county dropbox or they have to be postmarked by election day.”
This year DuPage County introduced the Vote Anywhere Program, which was “very popular” according to Kaczmarek. It allowed voters from DuPage to vote at any polling location in the county, including on Election Day.
DuPage County switched over to a paper ballot system for this election. “The staff, the election judges and the voters seemed very pleased with the new system,” said Kaczmarek. “And I was happy with the results.”
Illinois Election Races
With mail-in and absentee ballots still to be counted, unofficial election results show Incumbent Governor J.B. Pritzker defeated Beverly Miles in the Democratic primary, and will face off this against Republican primary winner Darren Bailey.
Kathy Salvi won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Illinois and will take on incumbent Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth in the general election.
For Illinois Attorney General, Republican Thomas DeVore will challenge incumbent Democrat Kwame Raoul in November. Democrat Alexi Giannoulis and Republican Dan Brady will compete for the position of Secretary of State in the general election. This is the first time in 24 years the seat has been up for grabs, as Jesse White has retired.
In the local U.S. House races, Democratic incumbent Congressman Sean Casten won his party’s vote in the 6th district, and will face off against the Republican victor, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau. For the 11th District, Republican primary winner Catalina Lauf will challenge Democrat incumbent Congressman Bill Foster in November
In the DuPage County Chairman race, Democratic nominee Deb Conroy will compete against the Republican nominee Greg Hart. The former chairman, Dan Cronin, is stepping down after three terms. The General Election will take place on November 8th.
For many of the local Will County races in this primary election, the candidates were running unopposed within their respective parties.
Reporting for Naperville News 17, I’m Will Payne.
