Millennials Lead 'Exceptionally Strong' Voter Turnout On Tuesday
By aaroncynic in News on Nov 8, 2016 9:20PM
Getty Images / Photo: Scott Olsen
Updated: 6:00 p.m. Voter turnout is shaping up to be very high in Chicago overall, according to reports from the Chicago Board of Elections and Cook County Clerk. Chicago is on-pace to have a voter turnout of 73 to 74 percent today.:
Suburban Cook County voters have cast over 994,000 ballots in #Election2016 and there's still an hour of voting left! #twill #ElectionNight pic.twitter.com/Vcsu8DfYFa
— David Orr (@cookcountyclerk) November 9, 2016
Turnout in Chicago on pace to be 73-74% says @ChicagoElection in presser. 2008 was 73.87%, 2012 was 75.41% turnout.
— The Daily Line (@thedailylinechi) November 8, 2016
Election officials say that voter turnout has been “exceptionally strong” Tuesday afternoon, with the potential of even exceeding turnout numbers in 2008 and 2012.
As of 3:00 p.m., officials with the Chicago Board of Elections say turnout was at 54 percent, with the largest number of voters being 25 to 34 year-olds, who cast some 184,000 ballots. In total, some 864,000 ballots have been cast between early voting, mail and election day.
Early voting records were shattered this week as well, with the Board reporting that Chicagoans cast 325,112 ballots since it began on October 24th.
Turnout is also high in the suburbs. Early Tuesday afternoon, Cook County Clerk David Orr tweeted turnout had already passed the 50 percent mark.
With 443,961 pre-Election Day ballots & over 320,000 votes cast on #ElectionDay, suburban Cook County is already at 50.5% turnout at 12pm!
— David Orr (@cookcountyclerk) November 8, 2016
While some Chicago voters experienced long lines and ballot irregularities Tuesday morning, overall, Board of Elections spokesperson Jim Allen said things were on the up and up. “All things considered, it’s going very smoothly today. Turnout is exceptionally strong, I’m hoping we can match and even exceed 2008.”
Allen said that while there are always a few incidents, as Chicago is an extremely large jurisdiction. But overall there haven’t been many reports. Only 7 out of 14,000 judges had been removed from polling places.
Allen also added that the combination of electronic pollbooks and same-day registration has reduced instances of the use of provisional ballots. As of 3:00 p.m., only 6,400 had been used, whereas in previous years, tens of thousands had been submitted.