Low voter turnout for Lawrence County primary election

Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 1:09 PM

By Steve Anderson

The 2026 Lawrence County primary election is in the history books as voters headed to the polls Tuesday, but there were not many of them.

According to statistics from Lawrence County Clerk and Election Authority Will Gibson, of the 9,003 registered voters in the county, only 1,700 voted. 1,298 cast Republican ballots and 402 voted Democrat. None of the local candidates faced any opposition, which helped lead to the low turnout.

However, in the statewide vote for Republican governor, southeastern Illinois farmer Darren Bailey carried Lawrence County easily with 1,063 votes. Bailey went on to secure the Republican nomination statewide with 52% of the vote among the four candidates. That sets up a rematch in November with incumbent Governor J.B. Pritzker, who ran unopposed.

Gibson went on to tell GIANT-FM News that the election ran smoothly for the most part with the exception of a printer glitch, which prevent the immediate printing of the final results for a couple of hours, but that was rectified. He added that all results are unofficial until certified by the Illinois State Board of Elections and that there are a small number of vote by mail ballots that have not yet been received that would be eligible for tabulation. Complete election results are available at lawrencecountyillinois.com