Democrats fight to keep control in Illinois amid GOP push as voters head to polls

A compressed election season that buffeted voters with tens of millions of dollars in largely negative ads ends Tuesday as voters go to the polls to decide contests from U.S. Senate, governor, statewide offices and every congressional and state legislative seat as well as a proposal to change the state’s constitution.

Election Day polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. with anyone in line at closing time still eligible to cast a ballot. The weather forecast for the Chicago area calls for partly sunny skies with highs in the upper 50s with light winds and no rain.

Campaigns launched more than a year and a half ago in a renewed wave of a COVID-19 variant have tumbled voters through a litany of issues ranging from pandemic mitigation to crime and civil justice, taxes and fiscal prudence, jobs, union support, abortion and LGBTQ rights to an inflationary economy all creating a comprehensive referendum on governance at the ballot box.

Also at stake was the role of Illinois voters in deciding the partisan makeup of the U.S. House in contests involving 17 newly drawn congressional districts as well as what the majority party would be in the U.S. Senate.

As of early Monday, the Illinois State Board of Elections reported that nearly 1.2 million of the state’s more than 8.7 million registered voters cast early ballots either by mail or at in-person voting sites. With one day to go, that’s down compared with 2018 figures when more than 1.56 million voted early and mailed-in their ballots. However, the number of returned mail-in ballots in 2022 are up compared to 2018 with more than 544,000 having been returned so far this year compared with 427,000 total in 2018.

In Chicago, as of Sunday night, 237,219 ballots, either vote-by-mail or in-person early votes had been cast, down about 37,000 from a similar time frame in the 2018 midterms, the Chicago Board of Elections said.

But in parts of Chicago on Monday, voters waited in line, sometimes for hours, to cast their ballots.

At the 44th Ward early voting site, the line of voters stretched down Belmont Avenue and rounded the corner onto North Broadway. Site administrator Vito Cifaldi said the wait was about 2 ½ hours at the Merlo Library and that lines had been substantial the past three days.

On Sunday, election staffers there stayed open until 7:30 p.m. to accommodate voters who got in line before the early site was scheduled to close at 4 p.m., Cifaldi said. Most voters were understanding, Cifaldi said.

Nicolette Brick, a 28-year-old Lakeview resident, had hoped to beat the Election Day rush and waited in line Monday for an hour. But she eventually gave up.

“I guess I’ll try again tomorrow,” she said.

[ Most Chicago voters will be casting their ballots in new polling places on Election Day ]

One complicating factor for Election Day in Chicago is the redrawing of many precincts and relocation of polling places. Voters who want to go to their precinct polling place on Election Day must go to their assigned location. Additionally, all 51 early voting Sites in Chicago will be open as vote centers on Tuesday and a Chicago voter can cast a ballot at anyone of them, regardless of where they live in the city.

“I think this is the big push. People realize how important this election is on various levels,” Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Elections, said Monday. “I do think people are going to come out and I think we’re going to beat 2018 numbers.”

Voters casting a vote-by-mail ballot must get their mail ballots shipped and postmarked by the end of the day Tuesday for them to count or can also return them to ballot drop boxes or surrender them to vote in-person instead, she said.

The 2022 general election season was truncated as a result of a decision by Democrats who control the governor’s office and General Assembly to delay the traditional March primary to June 28 to await pandemic-delayed federal census figures used for the every-decade redrawing of congressional and legislative district boundaries.

But the delayed time frame didn’t alter the heavy spending the state has seen in recent years, largely in the campaign for governor, where the involvement of billionaires resulted in more than a quarter-billion dollars of spending through the primary.

First-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker invested more than $150 million of his personal funds into his reelection campaign fund, conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein gave $52 million to back Pritzker’s GOP challenger, state Sen. Darren Bailey, in the primary and the general election while billionaire Ken Griffin, who moved his Citadel investment firm from Chicago to Miami, spent $50 million on Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, who finished third in his bid to become the Republican primary nominee for governor.

On the eve of the final day of voting, politicians traveled throughout the state for rallies in a last-minute search for votes as the number of undecided and persuadable voters dwindled.

Pritzker participated in a multicity, downstate fly-around with other Democratic statewide incumbents seeking reelection with stops that included union halls in Marion, Peoria, Springfield, Rockford and the Quad Cities. Also joining him for many stops was first-term U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is seeking reelection against Republican Kathy Salvi of Mundelein.

Also part of the entourage was Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea, urging support of a proposed state constitutional amendment at the top of the ballot that would enshrine a right to collectively bargain into the state’s governing document.

Bailey, a state senator from downstate Xenia, held a news conference in Oak Brook with GOP attorney general candidate Tom DeVore and had a rally scheduled in the evening in Merrionette Park.

[ Illinois congressional map drawn by Democrats with aim of cementing control of state’s Washington delegation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker ]

Other major races on the ballot include suburban congressional contests that pit two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove against Republican Keith Pekau, the mayor of Orland Park, in the 6th District; two-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Naperville against Republican Scott Gryder of Oswego, the Kendall County board chairman, in the 14th District; and veteran Democratic U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville against Catalina Lauf of Woodstock.

Also at stake are two Illinois Supreme Court seats outside of Cook County that could determine if Democrats will retain a court majority they have held since the 1960s. In the new north 2nd District, Democrat Elizabeth Rochford is facing Republican Mark Curran, while in the new south 3rd District, appointed incumbent Republican Michael Burke is being challenged by Democrat Mary Kay O’Brien.

Also up for election are all 177 seats in the General Assembly — 118 in the House and 59 in the Senate — with contests deciding if Democrats will hold their veto-proof supermajorities over Republicans in both chambers.

In an era of concern about the election process, Chicago election officials said they haven’t seen the increase in threats that other election jurisdictions across the country have seen. But they will still be “closely guarding every aspect of this election process,” Hernandez said.

Chicago voters who encounter any irregularities on Election Day should call the city board’s central hotline at 312-269-7870, spokesperson Max Bever said. Voters can also learn where their polling place is by calling the hotline or visiting the Chicago election board’s website.

State Board of Elections officials also warned people to beware of social media misinformation that could aim to suppress voters. If voters encounter irregularities at their polling place, they should report it to an election judge and then inform their local election authority, officials said. Illinoisans can also email scamalert@election.il.gov or call 217-782-4141 to notify state election authorities of any irregularities.

The Illinois attorney general’s office will monitor the election with over 170 teams of assistant attorneys general and investigators. Voters that encounter suspected improper or illegal activity in Chicago and northern Illinois can call 1-866-536-3496, while central and southern Illinois voters can call 1-866-559-6812, according to a news release.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois will also operate a hotline on Election Day for complaints related to voting at 312-469-6157.

Freelance reporter Kinsey Crowley contributed.

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