Official tally: More than 4 million Illinoisans - 51% of registered voters - cast ballots
Just less than one month since Election Day, the Illinois State Board of Elections certified the midterm results on Monday — results where Democrats found success in both statewide and local races.
According to ISBE, 4.1 million Illinoisans cast ballots either on Election Day or in the weeks preceding Nov. 8 which produced a turnout rate of 51.06%. The turnout was the fourth-lowest for the midterms over the past 40 years and more than six percentage points lower than in 2018.
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Sangamon County had a higher turnout than the state average with 80,487 of the 135,338 registered voters or 59.4% casting a ballot. Turnout dropped by almost 7,000 voters compared to the 2018 midterm elections.
Vote-by-mail remains popular
The 2020 General Election, in the throws of the COVID-19 pandemic, had more than 2 million, or more than a third of all voting, cast by mail.
Not as popular as two years ago, the 2022 election still had the second-highest share of voters voting by mail since 2004. More than 741,000, or 17.9% of the votes cast, were by mail.
ISBE reported the 2022 vote-by-mail tallies were based on pre-election ballot reports. The final total will be revealed in a statewide election administration and voting survey that will be published early next year.
Amendment 1
Several statewide elections were called in the literal minutes after the polls closed on Election Day, including the gubernatorial race where Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker earned a second term over Republican challenger state Sen. Darren Bailey by 12 points.
Passage of Amendment 1, also known as the Workers' Rights Amendment, took longer to call as either a 60% majority vote on the issue or a simple majority of the votes of all votes in the election were required. The Associated Press projected victory for the WRA, protecting a worker's right to collectively bargain in Illinois, one week after the election.
ISBE's report on Monday confirmed the margin of victory for Amendment 1 with 53.4% “yes” votes among all ballots cast. Sangamon voters supported the issue by a slim margin with 50.1% casting a "yes" ballot, while Cook County had the largest number of votes in favor and the widest margin of victory.
More:Illinois Workers' Rights Amendment, known as 'Amendment 1,' projected to pass
Close races
Democrats maintained their super-majority in the Illinois Senate and built on its existing advantage in the Illinois House but had several close calls. The results from ISBE showed Democrats won 78 of the 118 seats in the House and 40 of the 59 seats in the Senate.
In the local Illinois Senate District 48 race featuring state Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, and state Rep. Sandy Hamilton, R-Springfield, the final 50.9% to 49.1% tally favored the Democrat.
Turner distanced herself from Hamilton primarily in Sangamon County by 1,375 votes but also won in Macon County by 945 votes. Hamilton won Christian County by 913 votes although the county only had 2,667 votes of the nearly 77,000 cast in the race.
State Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Frankfort, overcame Republican challenger Patrick Sheehan in the Illinois Senate District 19 race by less than 1,000 votes. The race caught the attention of many as Pritzker called on Hastings to resign from the Senate in September due to allegations of domestic violence from his estranged wife.
The other locally contested Illinois General Assembly race saw state Rep. Sue Scherer, D-Decatur, win comfortably over Republican challenger Lisa Smith 58.1% to 41.9%. Scherer, like Turner, had her most prevalent support in Sangamon County with 63.6% of the nearly 16,000 votes cast in the county.
Contact Patrick Keck: pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Amendment 1 victory, Democrat super-majorities certified by ISBE
