Chicago voter turnout: Hundreds of thousands flock to polls for Illinois primary election
Hundreds of thousands turn out for Primary Election Day in Chicago
Hundreds of thousands of people cast their vote in the Illinois primary election on Tuesday.
CHICAGO - Nearly 400,000 ballots had been cast in Chicago so far this Election Day, representing 26% of the city’s more than 1.5 million active registered voters.
The total of 396,028 ballots includes early voting and previously processed vote-by-mail ballots. Election officials said turnout figures will continue to update throughout the day.
Ballots cast by age group
By the numbers:
Here's a look at Chicago's voting totals as of 5 p.m.:
18-24: 19,605 ballots cast
25-34: 65,658 ballots cast
35-44: 61,313 ballots cast
45-54: 53,972 ballots cast
55-64: 67,714 ballots cast
65-74: 73,154 ballots cast
75+: 53,469 ballots cast
By gender, women made up the majority of ballots cast with 223,376, compared with 171,385 from men. A small number of ballots were recorded from voters identifying as non-binary or undeclared.
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Ballots cast per hour
6:00am-7:00am: 5,120 ballots cast
7:00am-8:00am: 7,902 ballots cast
8:00am – 9:00am: 9,475 ballots cast
9:00am – 10:00am: 9,823 ballots cast
10:00am – 11:00am: 11,425 ballots cast
11:00am – 12:00pm: 13,350 ballots cast
12:00pm – 1:00pm: 13,588 ballots cast
1:00pm – 2:00pm: 13,932 ballots cast
2:00pm - 3:00pm: 14,345 ballots cast
3:00pm - 4:00pm: 16,880 ballots cast
4:00pm - 5:00pm: 21,486 ballots cast
5:00pm - 6:00pm: 25,411 ballots cast
6:00pm - 7:00pm: 23,222 ballots cast
Officials said turnout is expected to rise throughout the day as polls remain open.
Suburban turnout
The higher voter turnout trends appeared to be carrying outside the city, including in DuPage County, where turnout was on pace for the highest in recent memory for a midterm primary election, according to the local county clerk's office.
As of 2 p.m., there were 115,069 votes cast, which represented a turnout rate of just about 18%.
For comparison, the primary turnout rate in 2022 was 22.7%; it was 24.8% in 2018 and 19.1% in 2014.
In suburban Cook County, total ballots cast as of 8:30 p.m. were 356,343 — a turnout rate of 20.62%.
Voting results won't be finalized until two weeks after Election Day.
The Source: The information in this report came from the Chicago Board of Elections.