Grundy County sees high voter turnout, similar to 2020

Grundy County saw 75% of registered voters fill out ballots for the 2024 general election according to the unofficial results. Grundy County Clerk Kay Olson said a combination of early voting, mail-in voting and day-of voting made everything go smoothly.

“It was really steady, a really busy day but also really quiet,” Olson said. “Things were going really smoothly, according to plan, so that was great.”

Olson said the judges and everyone involved reported a steady line of voters that moved right along. She said Grundy County had 8,830 people vote early, which was around 3,000 more than the county had in 2020.

Olson said the voting turnout was about in line with 2020 and 2016, though 2020 had a record turnout when 79% of registered voters turned up to vote. While 26,612 people took part in the 2024 election, there were 35,637 registered voters, 1,981 more eligible voters than 2020.

“We had an extreme number of same-day registrations, a lot of polling places reported people registering,” Olson said. “That doesn’t always mean new registrations. That could be updating their addresses, or maybe they got married or changed their name.”

Olson said there were also many younger voters this year taking part in their first election.

The results in this election are still unofficial, though the unofficial tally shows Grundy County voting 64% for Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris.