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 Unofficial results show Rauner took 51 percent of the vote with
close to 100 percent of precincts reporting. Quinn trailed by about
157,000 votes, taking some 47 percent. Libertarian Chad Grimm took 3
percent.
Earlier on Wednesday Quinn had said he would not concede until every
single absentee and provisional ballot was counted. Polling in
Illinois was plagued with delays on Tuesday and a mysterious
campaign of automated phone calls targeting election workers, which
is now under criminal investigation.
"It is clear that we do not have enough votes to win the election
and therefore we respect the result, we respect what the voters did
yesterday and I look forward to working with the new
administration," Quinn told reporters at a very brief news
conference in Chicago.
 An hour earlier Rauner announced his transition team. With Democrats
still firmly in control of the state legislature, he has pledged to
work with House Speaker Michael Madigan to fix the state's fiscal
woes.
Illinois' public employee pension system is underfunded by $100
billion and the state has the lowest credit rating of any U.S.
state.
In the campaign 65-year-old Quinn had attacked Rauner, a 57-year-old
venture capitalist with nine homes, saying he was a heartless
businessman who does not care about the issues affecting average
people.
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Rauner portrayed Quinn as a tax-and-spend liberal responsible for
the state's economic doldrums and for continued corruption problems
in big state agencies.
(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz and David Bailey; Editing by Eric Beech
and Eric Walsh)
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