DeVore urges Illinois Republicans to develop early vote, ballot collection efforts

[November 22, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The Republican candidate for Illinois attorney general says Illinois Republicans didn’t fail at messaging in this month’s election, they failed at the ground game.

Attorney Thomas DeVore during a political rally near Quincy, Illinois, in June.
Greg Bishop / The Center Square
 

Republicans lost every statewide seat in the Nov. 8 election. They also lost seats in the Illinois House. Incumbent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the day after winning, said voters rejected Republicans.

“Republicans are complaining and criticizing and they have no solutions for anything,” Pritzker said.

Attorney Thomas DeVore, who lost his bid for Illinois attorney general against Democratic incumbent Kwame Raoul, said Republican donors funded plenty of mailers and TV commercials with the right messaging of public safety and addressing the economy, but that didn’t get out the vote.

“And while that really benefits the consulting class and they make millions off of it, it does not move the needle in form of elections,” DeVore told WMAY.

He said what’s clear is that early and mail-in vote collection does move the needle and that’s something DeVore said Democrats succeeded in.

“When the time that early voting started, mail-in ballots started, they were out there gathering those ballots on a mass scale and this election was over before Nov. 8 got here,” DeVore said. “And the Republicans that I dealt with at the state level, at least in Illinois, were completely oblivious to it.”

DeVore acknowledged concerns over so-called ballot harvesting, but said until the law is changed, Republicans have to utilize the system.

“What they should have been doing is 40 days prior, like the Democrats did, they should have had a ground game, a swell of a ground game,” DeVore said. “And you should have been out there getting those votes, gathering those ballots from Republicans in droves. That’s the only way you were ever going to win this election.”

There are no limits to how many mail-in ballots a person can collect for another, but the voter and collector must sign the transfer of custody before returning ballots to local elections officials.

Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning Newsfeed out of Springfield.