The computer tally that reported a DeKalb voter turnout of over 70 percent turned out to be false.

The real percentage of registered voters who cast a ballot in last Tuesday’s primary was 44.8.

The mix-up resulted from the amount of ballots cast within DeKalb county for both the regular primary and the special primary. The computer tally sums up the number of ballots and not voters.

The first figure is very deceiving, said DeKalb County Clerk Sharon Holmes. What was reported was the total number of ballots compared to number regular of voters, and a lot of people had two ballots.

“Normally it’s the same thing, but this is a very rare situation,” Holmes said. “Where have you heard of in Illinois where you can walk in and get two ballots? You have to work with the programs you have and figure out how to make it so you can see the actual percentage.”

To figure out the real number, the county clerk’s office had to deduct the number of special ballots from the number of total ballots cast per precinct.

Yet, the real percentage is the highest turnout for a primary DeKalb County has seen in years.

“It’s a very high total for a primary,” Holmes said. “We’ve never had more than 30 percent in some of those precincts.”

Both Democratic and Republican ballots had to be printed and sent out to the polling stations.

“We didn’t know what precincts were going to need them or if they are going to need Republican or Democratic,” Holmes said. “Some of the election judges called when they had 50 left; some of them called when they had 10 left.”

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