The Morgan County Primary Election ends Today. Tuesday marks two weeks from the Illinois Primary Election, and Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggener says that is when she can officially close the book on the primary.
“I have fourteen days after the day of the election, which was June 28th, to close the election. We need to wait for any outstanding vote by mail ballots that might be coming in, or military that hasn’t come in, and at this time we have everything in. So Tuesday we will be running our last reports and making all of the unofficial results official. Then the June primary will be closed and we will move onto November’s election.”
Waggener says overall, things went very smooth during this year’s primary. “In fact, I’ve gotten just positive comments back from people who voted this time, from my election judges, and actually all precincts were in and accounted for by like 7:45 pm this year so it was really quick.
WLDS News- “Is part of that being the new equipment that lead to the quick closing?”
Waggener- “I think so because there were some things with the old equipment and things in the past that needed to be done at the close of the night, and this time the equipment did all of those reports and it just made things a lot easier for my election judges.”
The turnout for the Illinois Primary Election was lower than some expected this year. Waggener says she never expects a big turnout for a primary election.
She says from her experience, she feels that much of the annual low turnout for primary elections is due to many voters not wanting to declare a party to vote in the primary.
Because voters in Illinois are not required to register as a member of a specific party ahead of the primary, it is considered an open primary election in the state.
Still, voters are required to declare a party at their polling place the day of the election, which is something Waggener feels causes many voters to shy away from the primary, and instead, wait and vote how they feel in the general election, which will be held this year on November 8th.