Kane County mirrored a national trend of high voter turnout with 25% of registered voters choosing to vote early or by mail, Kane County Clerk John “Jack” Cunningham said.
A total of 84,116 ballots had been received as of midday Tuesday — Election Day — and would change as more mail-in ballots are received, Cunningham said.
His office didn’t have information about how the turnout on Election Day was going. Numbers will be released after polls close, he said.
However, “it seems to be a decent turnout today,” Cunningham said, based on reports from election volunteers and staff.
Cunningham’s office has a new feature on its website showing wait times at precincts around the county. A check at midday Tuesday showed the wait times were five to six minutes at Gail Borden Public Library in downtown Elgin and 10 minutes at the Elgin Township Office, 729 S. McLean Blvd.
At mid-morning, a line had formed outside the polling precinct at the Elgin library and about 300 people had already voted, according to a pollster.
When early voting is high, turnout on Election Day is usually high too, Cunningham said. But there is one factor that could impact turnout: the weather, he said. In Elgin, it was mostly rainy with temperatures in the upper 60s.
Presidential elections, including those in 2020 and 2024, usually draw more voters in than midterm elections, which are held midway through a presidential term when all 435 U.S. House seats and a third of U.S. Senate seats are up for election. Midterms tend to have a lower turnout, like in 2022, but can also become a statement in response to a sitting president or the administration.
There are also local races of interest for Kane County Board and countywide offices as well as for Illinois governor and other statewide offices and Illinois General Assembly seats.
In 2020, 234,751 ballots were cast in Kane County in the November election, the clerk’s ofice said. The number decreased to 159,613 in 2022 and then jumped to 225,946 in 2024.
Early voting, in person and by mail, has grown in recent years.
Clerk’s office data showed 72,537 voters cast early ballots in the general election of 2016, a presidential year and increased to 100,001 four years later, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, 51,376 ballots were submitted via early voting. In 2024, there were 98,907 early ballots cast in the general election, data shows.
This year’s midterm election has been drawing large numbers of early voters around the country. Nationally, 85.9 million Americans in 2024 chose to vote early, according to the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement.
Voters this year are citing the economy, the cost of living, health care, and immigration as key issues as they headed to the polls, a recent Pew Research Center study said.
There are many variables that draw voters out to the polls on Election Day, Cunningham said. “Some people are voting for something, some people are voting against something,” he said.
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Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The (Elgin) Courier-News