Republican Early Voting Up 44 Percent in Cook County

Republicans in suburban Cook County cast 44 percent more early voting ballots for Tuesday's presidential primary than the 2008 primary, Cook County Clerk David Orr announced Friday.

By the end of early voting Thursday, nearly 4,400 more Republicans had cast ballots than did four years ago. GOP voters represented 38.6 percent of all early voting ballots cast, up from 19.4 percent in 2008, according to a news release.

Orr attributed the shift to two factors.

"We have an uncontested Democratic presidential race in Illinois, so Democrats are not as motivated to participate," he said. "Meanwhile Republican voters are pleasantly surprised to have a say in the GOP presidential contest."

In the last presidential primary, only Barrington Township voted a majority Republican. During this Early Voting period, 11 of 30 suburban townships had more Republicans than Democrats casting ballots. They are:

• Barrington (78 percent Republican)
• (71 percent)
• Palatine (69 percent)
• Wheeling (61 percent)
• Orland (59 percent)
• Palos (58 percent)
• Leyden (58 percent)
• Elk Grove (57 percent)
• Maine (56 percent)
• Hanover (52 percent)
• New Trier (50.1 percent)

The three busiest early voting sites were: Orland Park (2,477); Northbrook (1,972); and Matteson (1,925).

The  had 666 ballots cast.

Orr said Democratic early voting participation dropped 45 percent when compared with the last presidential election.

This year, a total of 36,990 early voting ballots (22,374 Democrat, 14,278 Republican) were cast, down 28 percent from the 51,067 early votes cast in the 2008 presidential primary.

The vast majority—71 percent—of early voters were older than 55. Only 7 percent of voters were between the ages of 18 and 34.

Women made up 54 percent of all early voters.

For more news on the March 20 primary, check out .