Voter registration down in Illinois

The number of people registered to vote in President Barack Obama’s home state has decreased since his historic election four years ago.

Illinois elections officials say about 7.4 million people are registered to vote as of this week. That’s a drop of about 4.7 percent compared with 2008, when enthusiasm for Obama was credited for a spike in registrations nationwide.

Voter registration in the president’s hometown of Chicago has fallen about 10.5 percent from Election Day 2008.

Some analysts say the dip signals that voters are less excited about Obama this time around.

But political scientist Paul Green says the numbers simply have returned to pre-2008 levels, and he doesn’t see a correlation with the president.

Obama is expected to easily win Illinois on Nov. 6. Early voting begins Monday.