By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Early voting results from counties outside of the Chicago area are hinting of a downstate surge of Democrat voters.
A number of county clerks are reporting significant numbers of early voters in their counties.
Even without Bloomington voters who have their own clerk, Mclean County Clerk Kathy Michael said Democratic early voting spiked.
“It was six-to-one Republican four years ago,” she said. “Now, Democrats have exceeded the Republicans in early voting.”
Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten said Monday that his office is seeing a big turnout, also led by Democrats.
“We’re at about 5,600 Democrats versus about 3,000 Republicans,” he said. “Normally for a mid-term primary in Champaign County, more Republicans vote than Democrats.”
Hulten estimated 10,000 votes cast before the polls open in Champaign County, just 1,000 fewer than the 2016 presidential primary turnout.
In Springfield’s Sangamon County, Clerk Don Gray said Democrats are voting in higher numbers this year too, moreso than Republicans.
“Republicans are keeping pace, but they’re not at the level that Democrats are turning out at,” he said.
Sangamon County’s 2016 primary election saw such massive turnout that polling places had to extend their hours.
In Cook County, Clerk David Orr reported more than 100,000 residents voted early. In 2014, 34,700 total voters cast ballots before polls opened on election day.
On the Democratic ballot is J.B. Pritzker, billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune; Chris Kennedy, Chicago businessman and son of Robert F. Kennedy; state Sen. Danel Biss, D-Evanston; Tio Hardiman, Bob Daiber, and Robert Marshall.
On the Republican ballot will be incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner and challenger Jeanne Ives, a Republican state representative from Wheaton. Also on the Republican ballot are Erika Harold and Gary Grasso, two lawyers seeking the GOP nomination to replace retiring Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The list of Democrats seeking Madigan’s office is long, featuring former Gov. Pat Quinn; Chicago state Sen. Kwame Raoul; Northern Illinois state Rep. Scott Drury, a former federal prosecutor; Sharon Fairley, Aaron Goldstein, Renato Mariotti, Nancy Rotering, and Jesse Ruiz.
