Suburban Cook Primary Turnout at 43% David Orr Says Suburbs Pass 1992 Presidential Primary Benchmark FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
County Clerk David Orr said that 43 percent of the record 1,350,580 registered Cook County suburban voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s Presidential Primary Election.
“In January, we broke Early Voting records, then voters braved the bad February weather to cast their ballots,” said Orr. “There’s no doubt that suburban voters are determined to be heard.”
The last big suburban presidential primary had a 40 percent turnout in March 1992, when Bill Clinton was on the ballot. Turnout reached 44 percent over a half-century ago, in 1952, when there was no incumbent president or former vice president on the ballot. That year, however, only 179,111 suburban Cook County residents cast votes; over three times that number voted in Tuesday’s contest.
The total number of voters has surpassed the historical high of 561,828 in the 1984 presidential primary. About 4,000 late-arriving absentee ballots remain outstanding and roughly 4,700 provisional ballots must be reviewed. By law, the clerk’s office has until February 26 to certify the results but will finalize numbers much sooner.
Meanwhile, the proportion of Democratic primary ballots jumped significantly. About 76 percent of voters voted Democratic ballots and 23 percent voted Republican.
Less than one percent took Green Party ballots, which were available for the first time in a presidential primary. In 2004, 68 percent of people took Democratic ballots and 29 percent Republican. The Democratic/Republican split in the 2000 primary was 53 and 44 percent, respectively.
“Voters should remember that their primary vote does not limit how they vote on November 4, 2008 in the presidential election,” Orr noted.
Registration for the November general election opens February 7.
