CARROLLTON - As many as 21 percent of voters in Greene County cast ballots in Tuesday's Illinois primary elections, Greene County Clerk Debra Banghart said Wednesday morning.

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Of the 8,891 registered voters in the county, 2,161 voted, Banghart said. Outside of the state gubernatorial and attorney general primaries, Banghart said the Village of White Hall and its surrounding areas were able to decide whether or not they would want the village's fire department to extend to surrounding areas as a Fire Protection District. Banghart said an attorney is currently checking laws and vote totals to see if it passed, because the measure did pass overall, but was voted down in several areas.

Voters in White Hall itself chose to expand the department into a district with 253 in favor and 131 opposed. The Hillview area, however voted eight to five against the measure, which Banghart said would raise taxes, but also extend fire protection to those unincorporated areas. Unincorporated Greene County residents who would be affected by the expansions of fire protection also voted it down 120 to 83. The Village of Wilmington also voted it down 10 to seven.

"Right now, White Hall just has its city fire department," Banghart said. "They are trying to form a fire protection district to expand to the outer areas. It would cause an increase in taxes, yes, but some of the places do not have fire protection. Some contract with the city, some do not."

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Banghart said she was not sure what happens when there is a fire or emergency within the areas not currently under the protection of the department.

That level of voter turnout is pretty much the usual, Banghart said. She said some primaries see numbers of voters as high as 25 percent.

Of those 2,161 voters, 719 were Democrats and 1,047 were Republicans.

In statewide elections, Greene County Democrats voted with the majority of the State of Illinois, with 409 votes going to gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, who will run against current Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner in the upcoming Nov. 6 general election. Former Illinois Pat Quinn was also overwhelmingly selected by Greene County Democrats to run for Illinois Attorney General in November with 369 votes.

Republicans in Greene County chose candidate Jeanne Ives instead of Rauner on their ballots. Rauner was able to secure a close race throughout the state. In Greene County, Ives attained 636 votes compared to the 478 cast for Rauner. Erika Harold beat out Gary Grasso in Greene County 595 votes to 370 in the race for Republican candidate for Illinois Attorney General.

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