Coming on the heels of one of the most contentious presidential races ever, polling places in Lake County weren’t exactly booming for Tuesday’s consolidated election, featuring primarily municipal, township and school board races.
But County Clerk Carl Wyckoff said Tuesday afternoon that the relative turnout for a consolidated election might be up.
“I sense the turnout will be a little bit higher than the (consolidated) elections two and four years ago,” Wyckoff said, basing her assessment partly on an increase in early voting and vote-by-mail ballots in this election.
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Perhaps the most dramatic race will be in Waukegan, which will either get its first woman mayor or its first African-American mayor depending on the outcome of the race between Democratic Ald. Sam Cunningham, 1st, and Ald. Lisa May, 7th, running as an independent.
By noon on Tuesday, about 120 residents had cast ballots at Robert Abbott Middle School in Waukegan, according to site manager Max Murillo, who said he wouldn’t be surprised to see an uptick over the lunch hour and during the afternoon rush.
“It’s been a steady, small stream,” said election judge Barb Crociani at Abbott School.
Longtime election judge Karen Sinde of Zion, who has worked as an judge in Lake County since about 1993, said she felt the turnout at Abbott School was better than anticipated.
“Actually, it’s busier than I thought it would be,” she said. “I thought we would be twiddling our thumbs.”
While voters leaving the Abbott School polling place voiced support for either May or Cunningham, most had one thing in common — they weren’t making any predictions about the outcome.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m hoping for Sam Cunningham,” said Sherese Murphy of Waukegan, who brought her mother, Mary, along with her to vote at Abbott School.
“I know him and I think he’s a nice person,” Mary Murphy said.
Outside the school, a volunteer for Lisa May had just given a neighbor a ride to the polling place so that he could vote, and the volunteer said she was drawn to May by her concern for the entire community as opposed to just her ward.
At the polling place in Gurnee Village Hall, election judges said 152 ballots had been cast before 1 p.m. Village Hall was pretty deserted at the time, but the few voters there said they were interested in the village trustee race and mentioned some partisan rancor between slates in the Warren Township Board race.
Polls were scheduled to close at 7 p.m.
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