As expected, voter turnout is “very heavy” for Tuesday’s general election in Monroe County.

“My election team is processing over 1,000 voters per hour,” Monroe County Clerk Jonathan McLean said early Tuesday afternoon. “It’s going really well.”

McLean said overall voter turnout here is trending toward 80 percent or above for this election, during which local residents are deciding the race for U.S. President between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

That turnout includes about 9,700 residents who either voted by mail or participated in early voting prior to Tuesday, McLean said.

Same day registrations were the biggest issue being reported by McLean on Election Day.

While same-day voter registration has been allowed in Illinois for several years, it appears more local residents are taking advantage of that option this election cycle.

“It’s supposed to be the exception and not the norm,” McLean said.

Due to what McLean said was an “abundance” of new registrations and other voter registration changes such as address or name corrections – estimated in the hundreds – there have been some long waits for voters Tuesday at certain polling places.

“It’s been bogging down the election judges a bit,” he said. “The wait time for voters who are not registered will be longer than voters who are registered. I recommend that voters with registration issues (name change, address change, new registration) come to the courthouse so we can avoid delays at our polling places.”

McLean added that a router went out in Hecker, resulting in connection issues. However, that router was switched out in a short amount of time, McLean said.

For more information on voting here in Monroe County, call 618-939-8623 or click here.

The polls are open until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Election results should be posted online in Monroe County starting about 8:30 p.m.