Yesterday’s election saw strong voter turnout in both DuPage and Will counties, according to officials from both county clerk offices.
DuPage County
According to Chief Deputy County Clerk Adam Johnson, more than 53% of registered voters in DuPage County cast their ballots. When compared with 2018 numbers, early voting figures show election day turnout down 5% in DuPage County.
“From what I can tell, DuPage had a higher turnout than some of the other surrounding jurisdictions,” said Johnson. “We had a lot of voters taking advantage of the ability to vote anywhere on election day.”
That “Vote Anywhere” program was first utilized during June’s primary election. DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek had also credited it with a strong early voter turnout. In-person votes were casted on paper ballots, which were also used for the first time during June’s primary election.
“Voters seemed really happy (with the paper ballots),” said Johnson. “Results got out fairly quickly at the end of the evening. Everything ran smoothly.”
According to Johnson, the unofficial numbers currently show 86,600 in-person early votes, 62,642 votes by mail and 184,614 election day ballots. There are just under 20,000 outstanding ballot requests for this general election.
There is no automatic recount for races in DuPage County. The losing candidate can request a recount, but none have yet.
Will County
According to Will County Clerk Chief of Staff Chuck Pelkie, more than 49% of registered voters in Will County voted in this general election. When compared with 2018 numbers, voter turnout is down nine percent.
“I think this was one of the most scrutinized elections in county history,” said Pelkie. “We had more pole watchers than we’ve ever had in our precincts. But for the most part, the election ran smoothly.”
Several Will County elections are still being decided at this moment. Thousand vote-by-mail ballots and hundreds provisional votes need to be researched and presented to judges to confirm if they will be added to the tabulators.
“The county-wide races have a lot of interest because several of those candidates are within several hundred votes of each other,” said Pelkie.
Official election results will be finalized on November 29.
Naperville News 17’s Will Payne reports.
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