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Bloomington Mayoral Election Polling Update

Vote Today sign on a sidewalk
Ken Chui

There will be two candidates left for Bloomington Mayor by the time polls close in today's primary election. 

Incumbent Mayor Tari Renner is being opposed by current council members Diana Hauman and Kevin Lower, as well as retired fire-fighter Robert Fike, and former talk-radio host Ian Bayne.

Bloomington Election Commission Executive Director Paul Shannon said there were just over 5,800 total voters by 4 p.m. 

Shannon said he expects voter turnout to rise even more.

"We were at about 10 percent by 1:30 (p.m.), and I'm guessing we'll hit around 15 percent," said Shannon.

About three quarters of those who voted so far have done so in person, the rest were early or mail in votes.

Chief Election Judge Carin Henson was at Trinity Lutheran Church in Ward 1 this morning. 

She said turnout as of 9 a.m. was about "average" for a municipal election. But, she is encouraged by one voting trend.

"We have more people using the touch screen express vote machine," said Henson. "Because it's slower, they feel they have more time to learn now before the next election. That's good, embracing new technology."

Polls in Bloomington are open tonight until 7 p.m.

The top two vote-getters will face off in the April general election. Election results will be posted tonight at wglt.org. 

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Mike joined GLT's staff as a student reporter in February of 2016 having worked previously as a reporter at Illinois State University's student radio station, 103.3 WZND. He acted as a director for the WZND newsroom for two years. Mike was also seen as a reporter, producer, and anchor at TV-10 News. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism in May of 2017 before starting his post-graduate career with the Public Affairs Reporting Masters Program at University of Illinois Springfield.
Jon Norton is the program director at WGLT and WCBU. He also is host of All Things Considered every weekday.
Colleen has spent most of her adult life working the streets and beats of Bloomington-Normal for WJBC-AM where she won numerous reporting awards for hard news, feature writing, and breaking news coverage.
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