Champaign County Clerk:  Turnout Steady in 2012 Primary

In Champaign County, County Clerk Gordy Hulten says voter turnout looked pretty good Tuesday morning.

Hulten has spent the morning touring polling places, and comparing the traffic to the last presidential primary in 2008. Hulten isn't sure if today's turnout will surpass the more than 39,000 ballots cast four years ago - but he says he's still hoping to reach 35,000.

Hulten says almost 31-hundred of those ballots have already been cast during early and absentee voting.

"I think our early and absentee totals were a little higher than they were four years ago. And I think some of that may have been that the election is Spring Break Week," Hulten said. "And we have people who knew they were going to be out of town, so they took advantage of early and absentee voting.

Hulten says one of the busiest polling places today is in Champaign Township Precinct Five, in unincorporated southwest Champaign. That's where residents of two fire protection districts are considering tax increase referenda.