Politics & Government

Voters Turnout Slowly, Not So Steadily

Slow numbers reported early on in Tuesday's election.

Election judges across the village are reporting a slow and not so steady turnout for today's consolidated election.

As of 11:30 a.m., one election judge at Bolingbrook High School said just 17 registered voters had turned up to cast a ballot. The judge said he'd be surprised if his precinct—DuPage Township Precinct 17, which has more than a thousand registered voters—turned in 30 ballots by the time polls close today at 7 p.m.

"It's been very sporadic," said Curt Maas, the election judge for precinct 39. "Sometimes we pick up around 5 p.m., but I don't know this time."

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Maas said his precinct has historically shown up with less than stellar numbers. In the historic 2008 presidential election, roughly 550 cast ballots, he said.

"It's sad because if you take all (the DuPage Township) precincts, you have more than 88,000 people and probably 3,000 of them will determine this race," Maas said.

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Maas said a few folks had trouble reading the ballots, causing them to recast their votes. 

Maas said where the ballot reads "vote for not more than two candidates" or "vote for not more than three candidates" was confusing to some. 

Those voters' ballots were destroyed and they were allowed to revote, Maas said.

Other precincts were reporting better numbers, but nothing you would brag to your committeeman about.

Precinct 17, located inside the Bolingbrook Town Center, was reporting a slow day as well.

Bill Sullivan, an election judge at precinct 17, said just more than 50 voters had turned in a ballot as of 11:30 a.m.

Sullivan said his booths were all full at 10 a.m., but that traffic had been significantly reduced since then. 

"It's been pretty much all the regulars that we see at multiple elections," he said.

Meanwhile, 41 residents had voted by noon at precinct 13 on the village's east side.

Election judge Andrea Bell said she was seeing a steady trickle and no problems had been reported.

For more election coverage, be sure to check back with Bolingbrook Patch throughout the day and all through the evening for instant election results.


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