DuPage Turning Blue

DuPage County in a Blue State
Jake Giffon - Daily Herald

For the first time in anyone's recollection, Democratic voters have outnumbered their GOP counterparts at DuPage County polls.

Nearly 55 percent of all voters pulled Democratic ticket ballots Tuesday, according to the DuPage County Election Commission data. More than 132,000 residents voted Democrat to the GOP's 109,132 voters. In all, 242,917 primary ballots were cast.

The highest Democratic percentage of primary voters in the county before this year was in 2004 when they made up 42 percent of the vote. The low point came in 1990 when only 11.5 percent voted Democratic. Presidential primary years routinely draw more Democratic voters to the polls than off-years, according to the data.

Bob Peickert, chairman of the Democratic organization Operation: Turn DuPage Blue, said his party has finally broken the Republican party's "stranglehold" on the county.

"It's exciting to see the election results, but we still have our work cut out for us," Peickert said.

Read the article...

DuPage County has consistently grown in Democratic turn out, defying conventional wisdom with results recently:

February 2008: 55% of all voters in DuPage County pulled Democratic ballots in the February's primary.

November 2006: Democratic candidate Lisa Madigan is the top vote getter in all races in DuPage County in her successful run for Illinois Attorney General.

November 2004: Democratic candidate Barack Obama wins 63% of DuPage County votes in his successful run for U.S. Senate.