Elections Officials Report Steady Turnout In Champaign County

Illinois primaries may not see the turnout that’s expected in November, but election officials in Champaign County say they’re seeing a steady flow through the afternoon hours Tuesday.

The State Board of Elections said just a small fraction of registered voters statewide typically visit the polls on primaries. 

Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten has been using Twitter to report the turnout since polling places opened at 6 a.m.  

Most all sites he’d visited through noon today had seen around 100 ballots cast, while more than 200 had come through Lake of the Woods at Mahomet by 12 p.m.

And Hulten said one location, Clark Lindsey Village in Urbana, needed more booths this morning they were so busy.

Bob Koch has served as an election judge at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Urbana for about a decade.  He also lives in the neighborhood, connecting with voters who come through - a polling site that Koch says does well, even for primaries.

“The people around here seem interested in politics, and they do vote very heavily," he said.  "And so for the primary, we’ve had a steady flow.  We haven’t had any big influx, but we’ve had a steady flow since 6 o’clock this morning.”

120 voters had come through St Matthew’s through the first six and a half hours of voting Tuesday.  

The polls close at 7 p.m.