Aurora area voter turnout trends downward during primary election, officials say

Aurora area voters went out to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in the primary election, but with both parties’ presidential candidates effectively chosen, fewer made the effort than in previous years, officials said.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are already their parties’ presumptive nominees. Without that major pull to the polls, officials said late Tuesday afternoon that the turnout was less than previous years.

“There’s a few referenda and the county board races, but not enough to really move the figures up,” said Kane County Clerk John Cunningham.

Voters in the Fox Valley cast ballots in several county, state and Congressional races, as well as on some referendum questions, on Tuesday. For election results, go to www.aurorabeaconnews.com. Election stories will be running in the Thursday edition of The Beacon-News.

In Kane County, by around 3:30 p.m., about 15,000 people had voted in-person on Tuesday, according to Cunningham. He said around 6,000 Democrats and around 9,000 Republicans had voted in-person on Election Day.

Prior to Election Day, around 22,000 Kane County residents voted by mail or in-person at early voting locations, Cunningham said.

In total, that means around 37,000 voted in Kane County as of 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The county has around 340,000 registered voters, according to Cunningham, meaning the turnout at that point was around 11%.

In the 2020 general election primary, the final turnout number was around 25%, according to figures on the Kane County clerk’s website.

Polling locations across the state opened at 6 a.m. and were set to close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Despite concerns from some Kane County residents about the functionality of the county’s new voting machines, Cunningham said there were no issues during early voting and as of late Tuesday afternoon there were no issues during in-person voting, either.

“I’m pleased with the staff preparing the ballots and the judges setting up the polling places for the first time, and considering it was the first time, it went quite well,” he said.

In DuPage County, around 37,000 people had voted on Election Day as of 3 p.m., according to Adam Johnson, the county’s chief deputy county clerk. While there were still several hours left until the polls closed, he said turnout was trending much lower than in previous elections.

However, early voting in DuPage County was slightly up over previous elections, Johnson said. Around 23,000 residents voted early in person, and roughly 32,000 voted through mail-in ballots, he said.

Overall, around 15% of registered DuPage voters had voted by 3 p.m. Tuesday, compared to a roughly 25% final turnout in 2020, according to Johnson.

In Kendall County, fewer people came out to vote early than in previous years, according to Kendall County Clerk Debbie Gillette. She said early voting numbers were down from 2020 and 2022 but about the same as 2018.

Around 1,900 people voted early in Kendall County, and roughly 2,100 residents had voted by mail as of 11 a.m. on Tuesday, she said.

On Tuesday, roughly 6,000 Kendall County residents voted in-person as of 5 p.m., according to Gillette. She said that number is very low compared to previous years’ totals of 15,000 to 17,000 people voting in-person on election days.

rsmith@chicagotribune.com