Aurora-area residents weather the storm to vote on Election Day
Election officials in Kane, Kendall and DuPage counties said that despite some stormy weather Tuesday, residents still showed up at the polls to vote on Election Day.
Kane County officials Tuesday afternoon said they were seeing more votes being cast in this election than in the 2019 and 2021 consolidated elections.
Officials with all three counties said they saw dips in people coming in to vote during the storm which produced plenty of rain and some sizable hail Tuesday afternoon in the Aurora area.
There were a number of contests on the ballot Tuesday around the Fox Valley including races for city council and village board seats, school board positions, library and park board spots and more. For election results, go to www.aurorabeaconnews.com. Election stories will be running in the Thursday edition of The Beacon-News.
“We have a referendum in Batavia, which the turnout there is a little strong, and a mayor’s race in Elgin and city council races in Aurora, but they don’t seem to be generating that much excitement,” Kane County Clerk John Cunningham said.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, Kane County had a voter turnout of over 12%, which surpassed the 2019 consolidated election, which saw a 9.9% turnout, and the 2021 consolidated election, which had an 11.2% turnout. By late Tuesday afternoon the county had received more than 43,000 votes cast - both through early voting and those who cast ballots Tuesday.
“The bad part is that we have 305,000 people that didn’t vote,” Cunningham said as of late Tuesday afternoon. “That’s sort of sad to be honest with you.”
In Kane, there were 26,371 mail-in ballots sent out and 11,758 were returned, Cunningham said. Around 19,380 voted on Election Day and 12,124 voted early, he said a couple of hours before the polls closed Tuesday.
Kendall County Clerk Debbie Gillette said the vote totals on Tuesday are comparable with the numbers from previous local elections.
As of Tuesday at 2 p.m., 2,069 people had voted early. Gillette said she was unable to provide the number of mail-in votes received at that point. Around 4,612 people voted in person on Tuesday by early afternoon, she said.
Meanwhile in DuPage, Chief Deputy Clerk Adam Johnson said totals were increasing throughout the afternoon and the county has seen around a 16% voter turnout with just under 22,000 early votes, 35,000 verified mail-in votes and 44,500 people coming to vote on Tuesday as of 4:30 p.m.
“It looks like we are on pace to be in the general range of past municipal elections, but we’ve seen a bit of a dip at the polls this afternoon because of the storm,” Johnson said. “It’s hard to say how it’ll go for the rest of the day.”
