30 Comments - Been There - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:19 am: New York also has a closed primary. Only voters registered in their party can vote. And the cut off date to register was over a month ago. Bernie was complaining that maybe up to 3 million more people would have voted in the dem primary if it was an open primary - The Captain - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:20 am: The Cook County State’s Attorney’s race was a motivating factor as well on the Democratic side. - Tom B. - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:21 am: There were competitive races up and down the ballot all over the state. This is the first new administration on the GOP side since 1998 and there were several legislators appointed to posts, primaries galore from retirements and a very contested 5 person race for President - real rarity for Republicans in IL. Dem side, not only POTUS, but SA, several active primaries for Congress and a ton of battles where local state races were busting their butts to turn people out. No surprise we were up. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:22 am: ===No surprise we were up=== Sure, you can say that now. But did anyone have a clue how much turnout would increase before election day? - ChicagoVinny - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:23 am: IL also has early voting and same-day registration. - Ahoy! - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:25 am: As Been There mentioned above, NY had a closed primary where at least in the Dem side voters had to declare in October which drove down turnout, plus the shenanigans where 120,000 people were just suddenly kick off the voter rolls. Voters turnout in Illinois was definitely high and something was going on, maybe all the money and the contested primary’s? - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:25 am: Same-day may increase turnout, but I don’t think early voting does that much. Mostly just usual voters voting early to get it out of the way. - Nick Name - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:30 am: Not only is the NY primary closed, but it’s very tough to switch your party registration. And those registered as independents can’t vote. - Tom B. - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:30 am: ===Rich Miller=== Not the degree of the increase, but on Team D side, we were expecting numbers close to 2008 level. We were very surprised that we beat those levels in some areas. As far as Republican side, always said they’d set their record for turnout this year, but they just don’t have very good baselines for comparison, so really hard to predict what the number would be. - Papa2008 - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:31 am: Maybe, just maybe, voters in Illinois felt they finally had a choice. Lots of candidates with lots of disparate views. Instead of two sides of the same old coin. Maybe…. - walker - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:33 am: Both Trump and Bernie folks are taking credit for new Primary participants. Looking at NW suburban numbers, looks like a bit Trump, a lot Bernie. Increase among Dems was higher, around here. Don’t know about bigger areas. Very hard to tell potential impact, if any, on general. - Chicago Cynic - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:42 am: I think the closed primary means far fewer voters vote in the primaries. So while it was significantly less than IL, the NY D turnout was at near record levels. - Illinois is capsized - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:48 am: Illinois primary results show that there are voters dissatisfied with the status quo. Trump won lots of downstate counties - appealing to the rust belt voters who are sick of politics as usual and a weak economy. Rust Belt - here comes Trump. - Amalia - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 11:53 am: In New York the ballgame for much of politics is in the Democratic Party, up and down the ballot. You don’t register for a party, you really don’t care much about what happens with all of your government. didn’t register, didn’t turn out cause they couldn’t vote for one note at the top of the ballot. different here. - USeriousClark? - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 12:06 pm: In the general, disgruntled Bernie voters could migrate to Trump as disgruntled republican establishment could migrate to Clinton. Primary turnout tells a story but the crossover in the general could write a new one. - D.P.Gumby - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 12:17 pm: We need to decide what “party” means. If people can vote in a party primary on a whim–or run for the party nomination w/o being a member of the party–then should consider the California/Louisiana non-partisan primary system. W/o restricting primary to party member why does party matter? - Ghost - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 12:19 pm: we actually had fewer people, we just had more votes….. - Archiesmom - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 12:32 pm: Closed primary is the main culprit on the Democratic side. The Bernie independents and new voters make up a big chunk of turnout difference. - illinois manufacturer - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 12:58 pm: I agree with all the points but I have many friends in NY. Its even more than just closed.One was stunned when I said I had a primary to vote in. He was a registered Republican who even knew the Rockefellers and never had voted in a primary. He said those were for show the decision of who won had been made. he was surprised by how open Illinois was despite our reputation. We long argued who had the more corrupt state. Well I think it’s neither…..it’s these one of these nothing states the Illinois bashers probably gush over.IL and NY just get the media. I think Pew looked at it once and found state government problematic. Anyway good for Illinois. - Stuff Happens - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 1:02 pm: It was all those $50 bills Dunkin was handing out. - jack27 - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 1:06 pm: Aside from Alvarez, you left out all the proxy contests in Illinois, such as Dump Dunkin. Thus, while we in many of the districts didn’t have a choice on local ballots, Preckwinkle had reasons to get her voters out.Illinois was also early enough that the Presidential primary had some impact. I’m surprised that NY still has many of the election shenanigans that appear finally purged from Illinois. - @MisterJayEm - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 1:48 pm: “But something surely happened here.” Bet it was the yard signs… – MrJM - wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 1:49 pm: I’m thinking the closed primary, too. If I had to register with a party to vote in a primary, I would think long and hard before doing so. I don’t want to be a member of a club that takes people like me. - Squround - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 2:08 pm: The Presidential race was the ONLY race on the ballot in New York (save three special elections to fill legislative vacancies). The primary for all other races is June 28. The lack of any other downballot races yesterday meant that the Presidential candidates’ GOTV operations were the only games in town. - Amalia - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 2:16 pm: meanwhile, internet chatter on the race runs to “Bernie won more counties.” that sounds familiar! - Chicago Cynic - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 2:22 pm: Illinois Manufacturer, Not picking on your friend, but this attitude that elections are “just for show” and “the decision of who won had been made” is one of the reason our politics is so dysfunctional. People adopt these cynical memes as an excuse for not taking the time to learn what they need to do to participate in the political process. Obviously nothing was “decided” until people voted. Bernie thought he could have a come from behind win until the voters told him they had a different idea. Voters actually have to vote. And when otherwise good people absent themselves, they leave the process to the most active and sometimes the angriest voters leading to predictably problematic results. - carbaby - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 3:45 pm: There was nothing else on the ballot except vote for delegates and the candidate. All other primary elections for all other offices are next month. - atsuishin - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 3:51 pm: New York makes voting pretty difficult, as noted by most people here its a closed primary, No same day registration, No early voting and arbitrary enforcement of voter role rules and when to purge. Illinois is pretty sophisticated when it comes to voting rights. We should be proud. (no snark) - Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 7:31 pm: Regarding NY, it also has not only a separate primary for congressional elections, there is a third primary for state and local elections. - illinois manufacturer - Wednesday, Apr 20, 16 @ 10:28 pm: Cynic you are right and the way the New York parties have done it is cynical . Illinois is much better. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.