Polls open for the General Election at 6AM this morning.
Polls will close at 7 o’clock tonight. That’s when we will begin our Election Watch coverage on WEAI.
Voters who are in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed to cast ballots. Residents who would like to register to vote can do so on Election Day, but must go to the Morgan County Courthouse or their local county courthouse to do so.
According to Lee Enterprises’ Brendan Moore at the Decatur Herald Review, over 1.5 million people have cast their ballot early and in person in the state while over 830,000 vote-by-mail ballots have been returned. A little over 31,000 grace period voters have also turned in ballots in the state. There are still 438,000 vote-by-mail ballots outstanding in the state. All of this according to numbers gathered by the Illinois State Board of Elections.
In essence, approximately 1/3 of registered voters in Illinois have already cast their ballot for the General Election.
The other question is how will today’s rainy and windy weather effect turnout at the polls.
Morgan County residents, with the exception of two locations, only have one contested election they are voting on – President of the United States. There are three non-bind state referendums. Residents in Franklin are voting on a property tax extension for their fire district. The Village of Woodson is voting on whether or not to make their Fire Protection Board appointed rather than an elected position.
The competitive races lie in the outlying counties. Greene County has races for coroner, state’s attorney, and county board, as well as a non-binding referendum on Illinois separation from the City of Chicago. They are one of a half dozen counties in the state voting on that resolution this election.
Cass County – mainly in Beardstown and Hagener – has two county board races.
Sangamon County has races for recorder, circuit clerk, state’s attorney, and several county board seats. Some residents will also be voting in the 13th Congressional District race and the 95th State Representative race.
The Pike County Board has a competitive race, and voters in the northern part of Brown County have the chance to consolidate two townships.
The last presidential election in the area in 2020 occurred during the pandemic. Morgan County had a turnout that hovered right at 70%, which was seen as disappointing compared to other parts of the state due to the expansion of the vote-by-mail system. Since then, tweaks have been made but in large, the system has remained in place and has worked effectively.
So far, no problems have been reported here. However, reports of electioneering and violence towards poll workers have popped up in other counties in Central and suburban Illinois.
Pundits across the nation are saying the race is deadlocked, which could make for a long night of watching returns. We will start publishing what we know on the hour starting at 7 o’clock tonight on WEAI 107.1FM.