The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners said Election Day ran smoothly in the city.
Langdon Neal is the chairman of the board. He’s predicting voter turnout between 50 and 55 percent. That’s slightly higher than the last midterm election four years ago.
“Everything worked extremely well today and went smoothly,” said Neal. “We would’ve liked to have seen a higher turn out in the city of Chicago, slightly disappointed in that respect. But overall, I think, a good day.”
But there were a few small irregularities in Chicago. Neal said they involved the removal of four election judges. Two were arrested involving a confrontation with a voter. One judge arrived drunk at 5:30 this morning and was removed. Another judge was removed for being disruptive.
Suburban election commissions have been hoping for a high voter turnout today. But some were disappointed.
A 50 percent turnout is about average for midterm elections and that’s what many of the collar counties are expecting.
Robert Saar is the executive director for the DuPage County election commission. He said earlier today voter turnout looked like it could break the average, but things fizzled out.
“But again it was just one of those things where the traditional last minute rush just wasn’t there this afternoon starting at about 3 o’clock,” Saar said.
The Cook County Board of Elections expected to hit the average voter turnout, but some polling stations will remain open for an extra hour until 8.
