Published: November 05, 2008 12:45 am         

Voter turnout in Clark County, Ill., highest it's ever been

Voter turnout in Clark County, Ill., was the largest it has ever been, but it wasn’t as high as County Clerk Bill Downey had hoped for.

With exactly a 65 percent turnout, 8,374 people voted Tuesday compared to the previously highest turnout ever — from 2004 with 8,221 votes.

“I was just hoping to do a lot better than that,” Downey said. “I kind of thought we would, we were off to a good start.”

Unfortunately the “after work rush” he expected didn’t happen this year, he said.

Both incumbents in the two contested races kept their seats.

County Board chairman Leroy “Jumbo” Ingrum, District 7, received nearly 55 percent of the votes, with 814. Republican challenger Aaron Wernz received 672 votes.

Republican Terri Davison Reynolds, who has served as circuit clerk for the past 20 years, will spend another four years in the seat as she received 5,203 votes over Democratic challenger Tim Bloodworth’s 3,027.

“I knew the incumbent circuit clerk was going to be hard to beat,” Downey said.

He said the county didn’t have any problems with the machines or other issues throughout the day.

“Everything went real good,” he said. “Everything went amazingly well.”

Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.



Race results

Contested Races

Circuit Clerk

Tim Bloodworth (D) 3,027

Terri Davison Reynolds* (R) 5,203

County Board District 7

Leroy “Jumbo” Ingrum* (D) 814

Aaron Wernz (R) 672

Uncontested races

State’s Attorney

Dennis E. Simonton* (R) 6,906

Coroner

Jeffrey D. Pearce* (R) 7,426

Supervisor of Assessments

Steven E. Turpin* (R) 6,814

County Board District 2

Donald E. Stephen (R) 722

County Board District 4

John L. Hammond (R) 858

County Board District 5

Dale H. Murphy* (R) 1,106

*denotes incumbent