More in suburbs have registered to vote since 2016, but fewer statewide

Election officials in the suburban six-county region are reporting a spike of nearly 150,000 more registered voters from the 2016 general election.

That's even after accounting for the dissolution of the Aurora Election Commission, which added more than 60,000 voters to the rolls in four counties.

Statewide, however, there are actually fewer registered voters today than two years ago - but only 301 less.

"That's a natural occurrence after a presidential election," Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said of the decline. "To be so close in a midterm election to where we were for presidential election is pretty remarkable, because interest and turnout are always lower in a midterm."

Even from the March primary, there are nearly 85,000 new registered voters across the state, Dietrich said.

In the 2014 midterm election, there were 37,641 fewer registered voters in the state than in the 2012 presidential election, he said.

After every election, voters who have died, moved or been inactive for two federal election cycles are removed from county voter rolls ahead of the next election. To be declared inactive, Dietrich said, voter identification cards must have been returned to county election officials in back-to-back federal election cycles, held on even-numbered years.

Thousands of suburban voters' names are removed from voting rolls after each general election, but most election officials don't keep statistics on why voters were purged.

A voter put on the inactive list can still vote, according to the state elections board. There are 223,511 inactive suburban voters, according to a report released Monday by the board.

Most have moved or died, election officials said.

If the voter cards are delivered but someone chooses not to vote, the person remains on the voter rolls, elections officials said.

"We never cancel a voter simply for not voting for any length of time," Lake County Clerk Carla Wyckoff said.

In recent weeks, states like Georgia and Kansas have come under scrutiny for their voter-roll purges. Unlike Illinois, those states don't allow voters to register the same day as they cast a ballot.

Cook County Clerk David Orr is reporting 71,721 more voters than in 2016, a 4.7 percent spike. Wyckoff is reporting 17,403 more voters for a 4 percent bump. McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan's office is reporting a 4.8 percent voter registration increase that amounts to 10,838 more voters this election.

DuPage, Kane and Will counties, along with Kendall County, absorbed more than 60,000 Aurora voters when the city's election commission was dissolved. Kane County took the lion's share and saw a massive 27.4 percent spike in registered voters over the 2016 election, which amounted to 67,470 new voters in 2018, according to county Clerk Jack Cunningham's office.

DuPage and Will counties saw matching voter total increases of 4.4 percent - 27,333 new voters in DuPage County and 17,992 in Will County.

Election officials believe efforts to make voter registration easier and technological advances have helped boost participation.

"We have made voter registration easier with the introduction of online voter registration through the Illinois State Board of Elections website and with same day voter registration at polling places," said Kane County Supervisor of Elections Raymond Esquivel. "The Illinois General Assembly passed automatic voter registration last year and so the upward trend in registrations should continue."