About 1 in 4 registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election. And believe or not, that’s good.
Turnout across McLean County (including Bloomington voters) jumped to 25% on Tuesday, buoyed in part by high interest in the Unit 5 tax referendum and school board races. That’s well above the turnout in other recent non-mayoral local elections, such as 2019 (12%), 2015 (11%) and 2011 (11%).
Around 29,376 people voted in Tuesday’s election. About one-third of them (30%) voted early or voted by mail, continuing a trend that accelerated during the pandemic.
Election officials anticipated higher-than-average turnout – and the 25% exceeded even those expectations. Severe weather held off in Bloomington-Normal until well after polls closed.
“The overall turnout for a municipal election was staggeringly higher than in years past. That’s something we were talking about – just the number of votes coming in,” said Patrick Mainieri, a spokesperson for Yes for Unit 5, the leading pro-referendum community group, late Tuesday.
Of course, a 25% turnout is low compared to presidential and midterm election years. Countywide turnout in November’s midterm election (including the governor’s race) was 57%.
