Polling places in the Illinois Valley were full on Tuesday morning – with election judges, that is. Voters, on the other hand, were pretty scarce.

Primary voting kicked off before daybreak and a theme quickly emerged in La Salle County polling places. Efforts to recruit more election judges have been successful, spurred by a pay raise, but there wasn’t much work for the judges to do.

Dave Potthoff, an election judge at Peru precinct 9 (St. John’s Lutheran Church), looked around the room and said La Salle County’s boosting election judge compensation to $300 per day, along with recruiting new judges, had borne real fruit.

“I’ve never had five judges before,” Potthoff marveled, “not for a primary.”

But the extra hands weren’t really needed. Potthoff called voter foot traffic “very scarce” and reported, at 7:15 a.m., just three ballots cast at St. John’s four precincts combined.

County clerks had predicted middling to poor voter turnout, citing a lack of local races. Bureau County was expected to be busiest with an open seat for sheriff that drew contested races on both ballots, but the clerks of La Salle and Putnam counties were braced for turnout below 20%.

And that was before a winter blast that dumped snow across the region early Monday and sent the mercury plummeting. The temperature stood at 11 degrees Fahrenheit at daybreak Tuesday, which didn’t exactly send voters flocking to the polls.

So far, the Bureau County sheriff’s race wasn’t enough of a draw for voters to brave the cold. One Princeton polling place reported 36 voters in the first 2½ hours of voting.

Spring Valley polls were unexpectedly slow, as well. Hall precincts 1, 2, 8 and 10, all located at Spring Valley City Hall, reported 33 voters in the first two hours.

“Surprised? Yes,” election judge Kelli Whightsil said. “That’s probably the lowest it’s been in a long time, and I’ve been doing this for 20 years.”

It was arguably slower across the La Salle County line.

At the La Salle VFW Hall, election judge Howard Tuttle reported just three voters in the first hour at La Salle precinct 9, which was one more vote than what was collected at the other three VFW precincts combined.

“And I think we’re in the landslide position compared to our peers,” Tuttle quipped. “They’re very envious.”

The VFW precincts all were well-staffed, however. Election judge Tina Strickland said the recruitment drive produced a welcome influx of judges – “I’m seeing a lot of new faces” – helped by the county’s decision to boost compensation.

At Ottawa Precinct 1 (Knights of Columbus River’s Edge Event Center), it was more of the same.

When asked how the day was going, first-time election judge Jeremiah Metille simply said “slow,” noting 15 voters had shown up so far after polls had been open for four hours.