Over 6 million Illinois residents cast ballots in 2020 election

Nearly 6.1 million people cast ballots in last month’s election, bringing the overall turnout to nearly 73%, the Illinois State Board of Elections reported

Those were just some of the highlights from state election officials who certified the results at a meeting Friday.

“The strong turnout in this election is a testament to the voters of Illinois and the state’s 108 local election authorities,” executive director Steve Sandvoss said in a statement. “Amid a historic public health crisis that presented a formidable obstacle, the election community statewide rose to the occasion.”

A record 8,364,099 registered voters were eligible to participate in the election, surpassing a previous high of 8,029,847 eligible voters in 2016. Ballots were cast by 6,098,729 residents, surpassing the previous high of 5,666,118 ballots cast in 2016.

Turnout for the election was 72.9%, the highest statewide turnout since the 1992 general election, which saw a 78.2% turnout.

About one in three voters cast ballots in person on Election Day. Another one-third voted by mail, and a third voted early.

Election agencies around the state lobbied hard for people to vote by mail or to vote early because of the coronavirus.

In the March primary, 28.4% of registered voters cast ballots, which was the third-lowest turnout for a presidential primary over the past 40 years, officials said in April.

The General Assembly voted in May to expand the state’s vote-by-mail system to ease voters’ concerns about going to polling places during the pandemic; Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the measure into law in July.