(The Center Square) – With the election results official, Illinois’ presidential electors are preparing to cast their votes for president.
Last month’s election turnout in Illinois was the fourth lowest in nearly 50 years. The Illinois State Board of Elections proclaimed the election results official Monday morning. Spokesman Matt Dietrich said turnout would be considered “normal.”
“We had a good turnout, 70.42%, which is right about what we had at the last two non-pandemic presidential elections,” Dietrich told The Center Square.
Nothing in the down ballot races stuck out to Dietrich as an elections observer. But, he said there was much more early voting.
“We had about 35% of the total vote cast early in person and normally we would have expected maybe 25%,” he said.
Mail-in voting didn’t out perform 2020, coming in at about 19% of the total votes cast Nov. 5.
“The surprising thing I think about this election cycle for me anyway as a watcher is I thought that vote-by-mail might surpass early voting in person,” Dietrich said. “That wasn’t the case by a longshot.”
Official vote totals are available at the Illinois State Board of Elections’ Election Results website.
For the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris won with 54.37% of the vote to former President Donald Trump’s 43.47%.
“So our electors will go to Kamala Harris and that’s what will happen on Dec. 17,” Dietrich said.
Electors for Illinois’ 19 Electoral College votes will cast their votes at the state capitol in Springfield.
Nationwide, Trump won the election with both the Electoral College and the national popular vote.