PEKIN, Ill. – Voter turnout for the general elections in Tazewell County this year were seen at “historic” levels.
That’s according to County Clerk John Ackerman. Unofficial tallies have 68,594 voters cast ballots out of a possible 91,825, for an estimated 76%.
“The last several decades, we have not approached the 75th percentile like this. And really, since the beginning of the 19th Century, we haven’t seen voter participation this high in Tazewell County,” Ackerman said.
In November of 2020 during the COVID pandemic, turnout was 74.11%, while in 2016, turnout was 72.17%
Ackerman says there were a few reasons for the high turnout numbers. He says that includes strong interest in both Presidential candidates, increased attention on election in local media, and better than expected weather for early voting.
As for future elections, Ackerman believes the trend of high turnout will continue in future elections, because of the many different ways people can vote.
“Having in-person early voting and vote-by-mail at higher levels, seeing all three methods of voting continue to be utilized heavily,” Ackerman said. “I don’t see us going back to the days of just having votes take place on Election Day, but rather seeing them spread out over that period of time.”
Ackerman says Tazewell County also saw high numbers of people signing up on Election Day to vote for the first-time, saying the county had counted at least 680 people so far doing that.
In Peoria County, voter turnout is expected to be at around 70% for this year. Election Commission Executive Director Elizabeth Gannon says that was her predicted turnout number prior to Election Day.
Gannon says there was 67% turnout after Election Night, but the number will be pushed to 70% due to vote-by-mail and provisional ballots.
“It’s at the voter’s convenience and it gives them more time to fit it in their schedule and make sure they can get their vote in,” Gannon said.
Gannon says those ballots are important because there are some races still to be decided, notably the 10th Judicial Circuit judge race between Republican Frank Ierulli and Democrat John Spears, which was separated by seven votes after Election Night.
Gannon is hopeful the vote-by-mail trend continues for municipal elections in the spring, which she says receives “dismal” turnout. She says some years turnout for municipal elections does not even reach 20%.
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