Obama´s city expects record high turnout on election day

Source: Xinhua | 11-04-2008 13:34

CHICAGO, the United States, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to see a record high turnout Tuesday in Chicago, where his political career took off and is currently based.

According to the Chicago Election Board, a series of new records have been set in the year-long presidential campaign.

So far, about 1,490,000 Chicagoans have been registered to vote in 2,575 precincts in the coming election day.

During the early voting period starting weeks before the election day, a total of 260,703 ballots were cast in 50 polling stations, compared to 81,690 prior to the primaries in February.

Illinois Election Board President Dan White told reporters that about 7.7 million registered voters are expected to cast ballots Tuesday, while the previous record was 7.5 million.

About half of a million people in the state participated in the early vote, he said.

The U.S. presidential elections comprise 51 elections in the 50states and the District of Columbia.

Chicago Election Board Commissioner Jim Allen said the country's election day is actually run by more than 30,000 local election bodies, resulting in various regulations, procedures, equipment and methods state by state and county by county.