More than one-quarter of DuPage County’s voters have cast ballots for the 2020 General Election. The combination of 69,499 early voting location voters and 107,018 mail voters totaled 176,516 as of 7:24 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, surpassing 27 percent turnout.
“Nationwide, high voter turnout has been predicted for months,” County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek said. “It appears that the numbers in DuPage are reflecting that prediction, despite the ongoing pandemic. In terms of ballots cast, we’re already heading quickly toward the halfway point of 2016 final turnout – 434,050 – 12 days from Election Day.”
DuPage County is entering the 2020 General Election with 644,796 registered voters. Nearly 45,000 voters have registered within the past year.
Historic General Election voter turnout in DuPage County
2016 Turnout – 70.6% Ballots Cast – 434,050 Registered Voters – 614,752
2012 Turnout – 71.4% Ballots Cast – 400,601 Registered Voters – 560,718
2008 Turnout – 76.3% Ballots Cast – 420,397 Registered Voters – 551,280
2004 Turnout – 76.1% Ballots Cast – 404,117 Registered Voters – 530,732
2000 Turnout – 76.5% Ballots Cast – 369,300 Registered Voters – 482,789
On Monday, DuPage County shattered the record for the first day of expanded early voting by 58 percent with 12,380 ballots cast. Historic comparisons for the same day in 2018 – 6,218; 2016 – 7,809; 2012 – 5,138; and 2008 – 2,956.
“We’re continuing to see daily records at expanded early voting compared with previous elections,” Kaczmarek said. “The average has been over 13,000 daily this week.”
The busiest early voting site – the County Fairgrounds – is also the largest; lines have been short last week Kaczmarek said. The Fairgrounds site offers both paper ballots and touchscreen voting.
The County Clerk’s office increased the number of Early Voting sites by 50 percent since the primary. Early Voting locations and times can be found on the Clerk’s website: at dupageco.org/Election/Voting/EarlyVoting/.
DuPage citizens who have not registered to vote may do so at Early Voting locations and Election Day polling places, with the required two forms of identification.
“I recommend voters needing to register to vote do so at an Early Voting location as soon as possible to avoid long lines closer to Election Day,” she said.
Kaczmarek urges voters who have received their mail ballots to complete and return them as soon as possible. Voters may return voted mail ballots via the following options: a USPS mailbox, no postage required; the DuPage County Clerk Election Division office; drop boxes located at the south parking lot and main entrance of the Jack T. Knuepfer Administration Building, 421 County Farm Road, Wheaton; or at drop boxes located at any DuPage County Early Voting location or Election Day polling place.
