Incumbent Senator Dick Durbin Declares Victory As Results Come In

From The Center Square:

7:56 p.m. Early results show opposition to progressive tax

Early results show more voters are opposed to the progressive income tax amendment.

Supporters had 45% of the vote while opponents had 55% of the 271,059 votes reported, according to the New York Times.

Its is too early to say which way the measure will go and some experts have said the measure will be too close to call on election night.

7:55 p.m. National Guard at the ready in Illinois

With the election over, there are concerns that violent demonstrations could spring up.

Earlier today, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the Illinois National Guard has been deployed to potential problem areas to assist Illinois State Police and other law enforcement agencies.

“We’ve been in contact with virtually every law enforcement agency in the entire state, we have the state police of course, which are the best in the nation, they are on duty, and the Illinois National Guard has been put into a state of readiness just so if needed by local officials they could respond relatively quickly,” Pritzker said.

7:51 p.m. Chicago prepares for unrest

Chicago is boarded up this evening in preparation for possible civil unrest.

City officials raised the bridges that lead to Trump Tower shortly before 7 p.m. and have placed barriers in strategic areas across the city, according to emergency management officials.

The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications released a statement saying all other streets will remain in operation for now.

The raising of the bridges brought comparisons to the 2005 movie Batman Begins. Shot in Chicago, Gotham City officials raised the bridges to protect others from a riot caused by a mob.

7:46 p.m. Durbin declares victory in U.S. Senate race

In the race for U.S. Senate, Democratic incumbent Dick Durbin, who has four opponents, shared some news with a virtual event hosted by Democratic Naperville U.S. Rep. Bill Foster.

“I’m sitting here in front of my television trying to figure out whether I won or lost and AP says I won, so I wanna give my first speech to Bill Foster and his friends, thanks for your friendship, thanks for your leadership,” Durbin said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do tonight before we rest. I hope we end up with a Democratic Senate and certainly with President Joe Biden.”

7:44 p.m.

With millions spent from both sides of the progressive tax amendment, the final election results are highly anticipated.

If approved, the state’s flat-rate income tax would allow lawmakers to tax different levels of income at different rates. Proponents say rates would remain flat or decrease for those making $250,000 or less, while they would increase for those making above that amount.

J.B. Pritzker says the tax would generate over $3 billion dollars in new annual revenue, but Todd Maisch, president of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, disagrees, saying people will flee the state with their money. If 60% of people voting on the amendment approve it, or if a simple majority of all voters, including those who skip the question on their ballots, approve it, the measure passes.

7:15 p.m.

Polls have closed across the state and the work of tabulating the votes is underway.

Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said it’s likely there will be at least 300,000 mail-in votes that won’t be tabulated tonight. Many of those might still be in transit to local elections authorities, and over the next two weeks, those votes could affect the outcome of close races.

Dietrich also said there haven’t been many irregularities outside of long lines, replacement of some malfunctioning equipment, and other things that typically happen with elections. But, in the era of COVID-19, Dietrich highlighted some unique problems, such as voters who were in quarantine who recently tested positive for COVID-19 still needing to vote.

“So we tried to intervene in those cases to facilitate communication between local elections authorities and the voters and I believe in those cases the voters were able to vote using curbside voting,” Dietrich said.

6:45 p.m.

Even with most of the state under restrictions that aim to reduce the spread of COVID-19 amid a resurgence of the virus, the polls remained open. Gov. J.B. Pritzker noted during his COVID-19 update today that it is a state holiday.

“As a result, local election authorities that use schools and college buildings as polling places have less foot traffic in and out of those facilities, another effort to reduce possible exposure to coronavirus while you’re out casting your ballot, keeping people safer,” Pritzker said.

One measure lawmakers passed this spring was expanded mail-in voting. The Illinois State Board of Elections reported nearly 2.4 million ballots were mailed out. As of midday on Tuesday, more than 1.8 million of those have been returned to local officials. Even before the polls opened Tuesday, there were more than 1.9 million voters who cast their ballot. There are more than 8.3 million registered voters and some have predicted record turnout for this election.

The governor urged voters looking for election results tonight to be patient.

“We can expect to get results on probably Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday, and there will be an official finalized tally announced by Nov. 17,” Pritzker said.

While voters wait for results, they won’t be inundated with political ads. Issac Wink, an analyst with Reform For Illinois, said the governor spent tens of millions of dollars on the proposed income tax change voters are sounding off on. Opponents also spent big money.

“You’ve got Gov. Pritzker putting $58 million into the pro side and you’ve got Kenneth Griffin giving about $54 million on the anti side,” Wink said. “So, that’s over $110 million just on that ballot question alone, which is the most expensive ballot initiative that we’ve seen in Illinois history.”

For statehouse races, Wink noted a large disparity in spending by the Democratic majority and minority Republicans.

“[Illinois House Speaker] Mike Madigan, to his personal campaign committee, he’s gotten $17.6 million since the last election,” Wink said. “For comparison, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, a Republican, has gotten a little over $4 million, so that really goes to show the difference in what they’re able to do to support their caucuses.”

The focus of the work of The Center Square Illinois is state- and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility. For more stories from The Center Square, visit TheCenterSquare.com.