Tuesday, January 29, 2008 9:18 PM CST
Record numbers turn out to cast early votes
By KENNETH LOWE, JG/T-C Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois voters have until Thursday to cast their ballot early for the Feb. 5 primary elections, and they have already done so in record numbers.
Dan White, executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, said early voting in Illinois is catching on now that more people are aware of it.
In the 2006 election, about 9 percent of voters cast an early ballot in Illinois.
“In the other states we looked at, there’s a period of acclimation and a period of awareness, where voters become more comfortable with early voting,” White said. “I think the word is getting out that early voting is available.”
White said that while early voting has seen an increase, the overall number of people registering statewide has so far been about the same. Clerks in a number of counties, however, are saying registration is up.
Macon County Clerk Stephen Bean said his office expects to process about twice as many votes as usual.
“We’ve already had more people vote in the office than in any other primary,” Bean said.
Peggy Ann Milton, the McLean County Clerk, said early voting accounted for 345 votes in 2006, and that this year’s early votes will surpass that number by more than 100.
Bean said the presidential primary has brought students and younger women out in unusually large numbers.
Milton said factors like promoting voter registration on campus have increased the number of students registering for the primary.
“The universities in our area have been energetic about registering voters,” Milton said.
Larry Reinhardt, the Jackson County Clerk, said his office is preparing to handle a primary turnout that will more closely resemble a full-blown election. A common primary attracts about 10,000 voters in Jackson County, Reinhardt said.
“Normally our partisan primary is one of our lower-turnout elections,” Reinhardt said. “This time we’re preparing for about 16,000 [voters], which is the same amount we usually see in the gubernatorial election.”
Milton said the larger turnout means tax dollars better spent for everybody.
“I don’t think it’s a healthy way to spend tax dollars to put on an election and spend thousands of dollars when only a few people show up,” Milton said.
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