Kane County reports low primary voter turnout, but success with new voting machines

Kane County Clerk John Cunningham reported a slow turnout in the primary election, which he said is to be expected without competition in the presidential election.

With 340,254 registered voters in Kane County, 45,102 have voted in the primary as of 6:30 p.m., representing about 12.2% of registered voters, which Cunningham said is not a great turnout compared to 18% in 2022 and 25% in 2020.

Cunningham said while the turnout is low, he thinks polling is going quite well with the new equipment in Kane County.

“The election is slow but the general sense is that the new equipment has been a great success,” Cunningham said. “I made it to all the early voting sites and the judges have had no problem setting up. The voters I’ve talked to coming out of the podiums have said ‘we’re very pleased with it.’”

Of the votes cast so far in the primary, 22,858 have been in-person and 22,244 have been by early vote and mail-in ballot. 28,549 mail-in ballots were issued in Kane County.

Among 67,160 registered Democrats in Kane County, 14,885 have voted, accounting for about 22.17% Cunningham said.

Registered Republicans in Kane County number 55,574, of which 19,050 have voted, a turnout of about 34.24% Cunningham said.

Election Judge Sheila Gut of Elburn signs in a voter with judges Amy Cho (far left) and Lucia Gorski (center) for the General Primary Election at the Town and Country Library polling place in Elburn on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (Sandy Bressner)

Unaffiliated voter registration saw an uptick this year, with 217,522 registered in Kane County, though only 578 have voted so far, a turnout of about .27%.

“Republicans usually do well in early voting and on election day, and the Democrats usually do very well in vote by mail,” Cunningham said. “We’ll see how it turns out when we count the votes after 7(p.m.).”

Cunningham said the turnout is as expected without presidential races. He said while there are a couple school board referendums and small geographical fights, they haven’t seemed to have brought out too many people.

“You don’t have a lot of activity because there aren’t that many races,” Cunningham said. “Usually in presidential races, both parties have candidates fighting until the end and we don’t have that now, so I would anticipate a low turnout.”

Polling places will remain open throughout the county until 7 p.m.