McLean County’s unofficial primary election results and voter turnout
Written by Colleen Holden on March 19, 2024
Image Courtesy of McLean County
NORMAL, Ill. – Today was primary election day in Illinois this year. Early voting began on Feb. 8, and the opportunity saw more than 1,000 voters between the three polling centers in the Bloomington-Normal area.
The three voting centers for both early and day of voting included the Bone Student Center of Illinois State University, the Eastland Mall and the Government Center in Bloomington.
As for the official numbers, McLean County, operating under the McLean County Clerk’s office, saw 10,592 votes cast today, out of 59,374 registered voters. The second election authority in the area, the Bloomington Election Commission, saw slightly higher turnout with 5, 534 votes cast out of 55,242 registered voters.
Election Judge Celeste Brennan spoke on what voter turnout was like at the Bone Student Center of Illinois State University.
“We were pleasantly surprised actually,” Brennan said. “We weren’t expecting quite as many people to come in. It’s been very good.”
Brennan has been an election judge for the last 10 elections. In her experience, the population of student voters has been satisfying and unwavering. The issue with student voting is being able to meet both academic and civic deadlines, where students lives are often filled with busy schedules and various activities and other responsibilities.
“The last election was about even,” Brennan said. “We had a bunch of them show up just before closing time last election, so we were trying to get them to come through before the 7 p.m. deadline, but I think there were as many today as the last election.”
One of the hurdles between the public and the ballot box is being registered in a given residential area to vote. This can become especially difficult as college students will likely change their address at least once during their academic career. According to Brennan, same-day registration is common and was available while polls were open today.
“We’ve done a lot of brand-new registrations today,” Brennan said. “We’re really pleased with the number of students who’ve taken advantage of today.”
The unofficial election results were posted on McLean County’s official website and Bloomington’s official election website. Official results will not be released until two weeks after election day.
Both sets of results showed Former President Donald Trump, and Incumbent Joe Biden leading the way by a wide margin in their respective presidential primaries. McLean County has a slight majority for Regan Deering over Chuck Erickson for the eighty-eighth House District seat, but Bloomington’s numbers favor Erickson.
Both Bloomington and McLean County are putting Brian Loeffler in the lead over Incumbent George Wendt in the race for a seat on the third district McLean County Board. Finally, Incumbent Don Everhart has the majority over Jason Dazey in both reporting locations for the McLean County Circuit Court Clerk.
The general election will take place on Nov. 5.
