Republican voters showed up. Here’s a breakdown of voter turnout in St. Clair County
Although St. Clair County turnout was low overall for the 2022 Illinois primary election Tuesday, Republican voters showed up at higher rates, energized by visible contested races.
“Like the governorship, they’ve been all over TV constantly. You can’t turn it on without a Republican issue for governor on there,” St. Clair County Clerk Thomas Holbrook said Wednesday morning.
Along with the competitive Republican governor’s race was the 15th Congressional District primary, in which U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-IL 13th District, conceded to U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, R-15th District.
A redrawn 15th Congressional District created the matchup between incumbents Davis and Miller.
More Republicans cast ballots this June than Democrats, but participation still lagged across the aisle.
Out of the 173,368 registered voters in St. Clair County, only 25,145 cast their ballots this election. There were 14,176 Republican votes compared to 10,637 Democratic ballots, along with 332 nonpartisan votes.
Low turnout in primary midterm elections is typical in St. Clair County and across the state and country.
In Illinois’ 2018 General Primary Election, about 17.6% of registered St. Clair County voters participated. There were 172,640 registered voters, with 12,449 Republican and 18,123 Democratic ballots cast in 2018’s primary race. The Green Party received 63 votes.
East St. Louis had 17,378 registered voters in 2018, and 4,879 cast their ballots in the primary election that year.
The primary races in 2014 had a much lower turnout than 2018, with about 9.8% of registered St. Clair County voters participating. There were 16,752 ballots cast with 171,162 registered voters.
In 2010’s primaries, St. Clair County had 165,035 registered voters with a turnout of 26,439.
County officials expect higher participation in the general election this fall.
“I think that right now, the Republican Party is energized nationwide, in the state and locally. And it ought to make for some very competitive races in November in our county, because we’re a Democratic county,” Holbrook said.
The county saw a higher turnout for 2018’s general election. There were more than 190,000 registered voters that year, and 99,849 showed up to cast a ballot.
