As Election Day arrives Tuesday, Peoria-area officials say they anticipate voting participation on par with typical primaries.
Elizabeth Gannon, executive director of the Peoria County Election Commission, said field support staff are getting equipment set up at the polling places, but otherwise things have been slow.
“Between early voting and vote by mail, we've had a little bit less than 10% of the electorate cast their ballots already, which is fairly low,” said Gannon. “But we're hoping that tomorrow we can get to at least 20-25% turnout. That's my hope.”
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman said he's expecting a little bit better showing there.
“About a 30% turnout is what we're expecting,” said Ackerman. “We are always hopeful for a higher turnout, but we think it’s lining up to be an average primary election.”
Ackerman said that as of Monday afternoon, his office had processed close to 2,800 mail-in ballots, and along with another 1,500 ballots cast during early voting.
Gannon reminds voters that Illinois does not require people to register by party, and sometimes that can create confusion at the polling places.
“You can change from one primary to the next to the next, but you do have to state at the time of voting if you would like to receive a Democratic ballot or Republican ballot,” said Gannon.
“Some areas of the county do have a non-partisan issue, but as that means that is ‘no party.’ A lot of times there's a confusion there, that you think you're going to get both Democrats and Republicans if you choose non-partisan, and that is not accurate.”
