Tuesday’s primary election saw somewhat below average voter turnout, though some Monroe County residents still packed into their polling places throughout the day.

In the race between Darren Bailey and incumbent Mike Bost to serve as the Republican nominee for the 12th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, Bost saw significantly heavier turnout locally, with 2,415 votes to Bailey’s 960.

These results were fairly matched in Randolph County, with Bost taking 69 percent of votes to Bailey’s 30 percent.

Per media reports late Tuesday night with 81.5 percent of votes counted, Bost had 53 percent of the votes to Bailey’s 47 percent.

These results were enough for Bost to issue a statement on his election victory late Tuesday night.

“I’m honored that Southern Illinois conservatives have entrusted me to be their voice in Congress for another two years,” Bost issued in a statement. “Serving the people and land I love is the honor of a lifetime. Tonight’s victory was only possible because of the backing of countless friends and supporters from every corner of the district, along with a vitally important endorsement from Donald J. Trump, our next president of the United States.”

In regard to the Democratic counterpart for the 12th Congressional District seat, Monroe County voters favored Brian Roberts over Preston G. Nelson with 402 votes compared to 283.

Those results, too, were similar in Randolph County, with 56 percent of the vote for Roberts compared to 43 percent for Nelson.

The wider district also voted similarly, with 60.6 percent of votes for Roberts and 39.4 percent for Nelson, though only about 41 percent of votes had been counted as of late Tuesday evening.

In the 58th District Illinois Senate Republican Primary between incumbent Terri Bryant and Wesley Kash, Bryant had double the turnout, receiving 2,253 votes to Kash’s 1,038.

The results were even steeper in Randolph County, with Bryant taking 78 percent of the vote and Kash receiving 21 percent.

As of late Tuesday evening with 54 percent of votes counted, the district-wide results were similarly one-sided, with Bryant’s 71.2 percent of votes compared to Kash’s 28.8 percent.

As anticipated by many, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden earned the lion’s share of votes in their respective presidential races in Monroe County, with Trump earning 82.36 percent of Republican votes and Biden earning 91 percent of Democrat votes.

In terms of overall voter turnout in Monroe County, a total of 4,170 ballots were cast in this primary, with 2,897 election day voters, 733 early voters and 540 votes by mail.

This made for an overall voter turnout of 17.05 percent, down slightly from the 17.39 percent seen in the 2022 mid-term primary election and even further down compared to the 19.73 percent of the 2020 primary.

As for party turnout this year, 3,421 Republicans cast their ballots compared to just 749 Democrats in this county.

Monroe County Clerk Jonathan McLean remarked on the voter turnout he saw Tuesday, noting the difference in each party’s turnout compared to prior years.

“I think that the Republican (turnout) was in-line with where I expected it to be,” McLean said. “Maybe a little on the lighter side. I would say that it’s average or a little below average turnout on the Republican side, and I’d say the Democratic side, it was much below average in terms of turnout.”

McLean also commented on overall turnout this year, noting there are still 238 vote-by-mail ballots withstanding. Though he suspects a majority of those votes won’t be submitted, any received in the next two weeks will be processed.

“We did have a very busy election day. We saw a lot of people come out today,” McLean said. “We had a lot of people that waited to vote until (Tuesday), and I’m not sure what that means. Maybe voters that just didn’t make up their mind until the end.”

McLean said election day ran generally smoothly. This year saw the rollout of the county’s new electronic poll pads, with voters also checking in at their polling places on an Ipad.

He reported no major malfunctions with this introduction, though the system did have some small glitches and required some adjustments to language and terminology for clarity on election day.

McLean did make mention of one incident at a Hecker polling location into the night after the polls had closed.

He said he received a call about 8 p.m. informing him the Illinois Attorney General’s office would not let judges at Hecker leave until the polls had been posted, though the machine had been shut down and the memory stick was already sealed in preparation for it to be brought to the courthouse.

McLean said he instructed election judges to return to the courthouse rather than removing the memory stick and printing the results at the location.

“The integrity of the election is compromised when you deviate from our standard practices,” McLean said. “Once you have printed the results and no one else at the polling place has requested a copy of the results and the machine is shut down, it’s my instruction to the judges to not re-start the machine without an election official or myself present to observe the process. And so the judges followed my instructions.”

McLean added he requested the attorney general’s office to put their concerns in writing, and he will consult with them about any changes to the process that might be required.