Local election officials expect low voter turnout

Jun. 28—Today is Election Day for a number of races in the General Primary Election in Illinois.

Normally Illinoisians see a primary election in the spring. However, it was delayed due to redistricting with the 2020 Census.

Local election officials still expect low voter turnout with this primary election, as in years past.

Carrie Wilson, supervisor of elections with the Vermilion County Clerk's Office, says they expect to see a 20 percent to 30 percent turnout as they have had in the past for general primary elections.

Wilson reported early voting has been going great.

"We have had a total of 461 early voters with 273 of them being in-person voters and 188 vote-by-mail requests returned. We have a total of 257 vote-by-mail requests and are still receiving them daily," she reported from Friday numbers.

"This past week we have seen an increase of voters as most are stating that they will be gone for vacation on Election Day," she also stated.

In Danville, there have been more than 260 early voters, according to Sandy Delhaye, executive director of the Danville Election Commission. They also had 129 vote-by-mail ballots.

She too expects a low voter turnout, based on historical numbers, of around 15 percent.

Delhaye, with others helping her, was busy setting up election equipment at the Danville polling places on Monday. She said it was going to likely be a long day for her and then an early morning today and late night for Election Day.

Polling places today are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Danville voters will have the option of using new touch-screen voting equipment in this election.

Delhaye said voters who still want to use a pen and paper ballots still will be able to.

"We're not taking anything away," she said about adding the machines.

The touch-screen machines are ballot-marking devices that fill in the ovals for a voter with the touch of a finger to the screen.

A voting card is entered into the machine. Then, on the voting screens, voters touch the candidate's name or other contest choice to select. If there are more candidates than will fit on the screen, a yellow bar appears at the bottom of the screen, signaling more options. A voter can touch the bar to see the remaining candidates.

After each selection is made, a voter touches "next" at the bottom of the screen. Someone also can go back to a previous page by pushing "previous."

For write-in votes, voters touch the write-in option and use the on-screen keyboard to enter the write-in name. Then the voter touches "accept."

When all selections are made, the "verify selections" screen will display a summary of ballot selections. If needed, a voter can go back if changes are needed.

When done verifying selections, the "print card" screen displays. The voter then will touch "print card" to print the completed ballot onto the activation card.

The voter then takes the ballot card, as occurred with ballots in the past, to insert into the vote counting machine.

There will be one ExpressVote touch-screen machine per polling place. There are 12 polling places in Danville. Voters also can use the touch-screen option for voting at the Danville Election Commission office.

For the general primary election, candidates are running for a spot on the ballot for the general election on Nov. 8.

Several local offices are uncontested including county clerk, county treasurer, county sheriff and supervisor of assessments.

Contested primary election races:

Republican

County Board District 1 (county board elections are vote for not more than three)

Todd Johnson

Joel L Bird

Connor Gilonske

Larry Baughn Jr.

County Board District 2

Steve Miller

Kevin Green

Eric Luttrell

Daniel C. Wright

County Board District 4

Timothy A. McFadden

Gary H. Wright

Robert Mitch Weaver

John F. Land

Marla Mackiewicz

County Board District 5

Crisi Walls

William "Billy" Ryan

Philip G. Jackson

Write-In — Jim Watson

Precinct Committeeperson Blount 2

Vicky L. Brown

Mark B. Crawford

Precinct Committeeperson Danville 8

Erika Briggs

Linda Sue Engle

Democratic

Board of Review District 1

Amanda Shepherd

Hau T. Swearingen

State and federal contested races include: U.S. senator, governor, attorney general, secretary of state, congressional representatives, and judicial seats.

As he is in most GOP contests, Trump is a central issue in Illinois' Republican primary for governor.

Darren Bailey, a conservative farmer who earned Trump's endorsement over the weekend and often reads from the Bible in campaign videos, is part of a six-candidate Republican field. His rivals include Richard Irvin, the first Black mayor of Aurora, Illinois' second-largest city, who had $50 million in support from billionaire Ken Griffin but was heavily targeted by Democrats who see Bailey as an easier matchup for Pritzker.

While Trump endorsed Bailey, he also campaigned alongside first-term Rep. Mary Miller, who is challenging five-term Rep. Rodney Davis in one of the state's two incumbent-on-incumbent primaries.

But at Saturday's rally, Miller described the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade as "a victory for white life." A spokesperson later said she had intended to say the decision was a victory for a "right to life."

But the Illinois congresswoman is no stranger to provocative statements. Soon after joining the House, Miller quoted Adolf Hitler, saying he was right to say that "whoever has the youth has the future."

Davis is a powerful, more moderate lawmaker who is the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, which deals with election legislation and the Capitol complex.

Meanwhile, two Democratic incumbents — Reps. Sean Casten and Marie Newman — are facing off for a Chicago-area seat. Also on the Democratic side, about two dozen candidates are fighting to succeed Rep. Bobby Rush, the only lawmaker to ever defeat Barack Obama. They include John Jackson, son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Karin Norington-Reaves, who has Rush's endorsement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.