Nearly a third of registered Illinois voters cast ballots before polls opened

[November 06, 2024]  Greg Bishop and Kevin Bessler | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Before polls even opened Tuesday, more than 2.6 million Illinois voters cast their ballots. That’s nearly 1 of every 3 registered voters in the state.

Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said the trends show early voting is popular.

“I think that probably shows voters have gotten more into the habit of not waiting until election day to cast their vote,” Dietrich said last week when there were 1.2 million Illinois voters that had already voted.

It’s possible voter turnout could meet or exceed 73%, he said. But, the numbers Tuesday night won't be official.


"Those could change because Illinois allows for properly postmarked vote-by-mail ballots to allow up to two weeks after Election Day and still be counted," Dietrich said.

Of 1.2 million mail ballots requested, 415,000 remain to be returned to election authorities.

As for the process of voting in person Tuesday, there were some initial reports of voting machines being down earlier in the day throughout the state. Things got up and running for the most part, with the exception of Champaign County. One voter posted to social media they attempted to vote and were told the system was down.

"I then requested a paper ballot and was told that they aren’t set up for that. I asked what is the manual process in the event that the internet fails. There is not a manual process," the voter said.

The voter later went back to the polling place and was able to cast their vote.

The Champaign County Clerk’s office sought to have a judge allow for polls to remain open until 9 p.m., but later posted to social media the polls there will not remain opened beyond 7 p.m. Voters still in line by 7 p.m. will still get a chance to cast their ballot.

Aside from the question of which presidential candidate should get Illinois' 19 Electoral College votes, voters are also being asked three nonbinding referendum statewide.

One of the issues is the non-binding advisory question asking whether millionaires should pay a 3% surcharge for property tax relief. Former Gov. Pat Quinn has been promoting the idea.

"So that's 77,323 millionaires, if they had to pay 3% more would generate $4.5 billion for property tax relief in Illinois," Quinn recently told an Illinois House committee.

Opponents of the idea say that could negatively impact small businesses. Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski said people are leaving the state partly because of the tax climate.

"This whole tax increase, the progressive tax and the millionaires tax, kind of just really goes counter to the most recent data we saw that 93,000 people left the state on net last year from all kinds of reasons so more tax hikes can't be anything but a people chaser," Dabrowski told The Center Square.

Illinois’ congressional races feature Democrats trying to hold off challenges from their Republican opponents.

The state’s most competitive races involve two first-term representatives seeking reelection. In the 17th Congressional District, former TV weatherman Eric Sorenson is facing former judge and prosecutor Joe McGraw, while in the 13th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski is being challenged by Republican Joshua Loyd.

Sorenson has been in office for two years, but McGraw says Sorenson isn’t the right fit for the district.

Budzinski is hoping for a second term to represent a district that winds through central Illinois from the Metro East to Champaign. Loyd, a graduate of West Point, said Budzinski doesn’t do enough for her constituents.

In Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten squares off against Republican Niki Conforti.

Nationally, Republicans believe they have a shot to flip several seats.

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