Introducing: The Illinois Voter Project

 The Illinois Voter Project provides an up-to-date, accurate representation of who is registered to vote, how they vote, and which recent elections have had the highest turnout. While the data was previously only available to political committees, it is now free and open to the public in aggregate form.

Illinois has 10.1 Million eligible voters, or residents aged 18 years and over. Only 7.5 Million of these are active registered voters. That means that 26% of Illinois residents are eligible to vote but unregistered. 

Sarah Brune, ICPR Executive Director, noted in the presentation that the “Illinois Voter Project’s map of eligible versus active voters by election jurisdiction will create a resource to help drive voter registration efforts across the state.” 

This project points out that while women make up 50.9% of the Illinois population, 51.98% of active registered voters in Illinois are female.

There was also a discussion of age range of voters. Active voters aged 18-24 are registered in the lowest numbers of any other age group, at only 7.1% of total active registrants.

ICPR found that over the last four statewide elections from 2008 – 2014, voter turnout has averaged 54% for General Elections and only 22% for Primary Elections. Interestingly, Primary votes shifted from stronger Democratic support in 2008 (66%) to stronger Republican support in 2014 (61%). The 2012 General Election saw the highest turnout of the past four cycles, with 65% – well over the recent turnout average. The highest recent Primary turnout rate was in 2008 at 32%. A full report and downloadable maps are available now atwww.ilcampaign.org.