Record 6.1M Illinoisans Voted In 2020, Highest Turnout Since 1992

ILLINOIS — Despite an unprecedented pandemic, Illinois voter turnout was up dramatically this year, reaching the highest levels since 1992, according to the state board of elections.

"The strong turnout in this election is a testament to the voters of Illinois and the state’s 108 local election authorities,” Illinois State Board of Elections 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."

Across the state, 73.8 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the 2020 general election — a record 6,098,729 Illinoisans voted out of 8,264,099 who could have. That's nearly three times as many voters who cast votes in the primary election held March 17, just four days before Illinois' stay-at-home order went into effect.

How does that compare to 2016 in terms of voter turnout?

In the general election four years ago, 5,666,118 voters cast ballots out of 8,029,847 registered voters who could have — about 70.6 percent. Not only did 432,611 more Illinoisans cast votes this time around, registration went up by 234,252 voters.

Not in nearly 3 decades have as great a percentage of Illinoisans turned out to vote in a presidential election. In 1992, 5,050,157 out of 6,600,358 registered voters participated in choosing Bill Clinton over George H.W. Bush as the nation's 42nd president — 76.5 percent turnout.

Here's how many Illinoisans voted in every presidential election since 2000:

In 2020, Alexander County in the southwest tip of the state saw the lowest voter turnout, with just 2,641 of 5,008 registered voters casting their ballots — not quite 53 percent.

Meanwhile, Montgomery County in south central Illinois, saw the highest turnout of registered voters, with 13,870 of 16,496 heading to the polls on election day or casting their ballots by mail — more than 84 percent turnout.

Officials said this year's vote was split fairly evenly between early voting, mail-in ballots and in-person voting on election day. Democrat Joe Biden carried the state 57.5 to 40.6 percent — with 3,471,915 votes to Republican Donald Trump's 2,446,891. State elections officials voted last week to certify the vote, officially giving Illinois' 20 electoral votes to President-elect Biden, who will take office Jan. 20, despite continued protests from the losing candidate.