Live Blog: Election Day in McLean County and across Illinois
Today is Election Day! Polls closed at 7 p.m. Follow the day's developments and the latest results on this WGLT Live Blog.
- Find your congressional district
- Find your Illinois General Assembly districts
- Find your McLean County Board district
You can follow the results using these resources:
- Results - McLean County Board and County Auditor referendum
- Results - Illinois congressional and General Assembly races
- Results - President, U.S. Senate and U.S. House from NPR
Election results require patience. Mail voting has been on the rise in recent elections, and mail ballots require verification. It’s not necessarily a sign of trouble if results are not immediately available. Also, remember that a candidate’s early advantage can shift as more places report results.
Democrats headed for majority control of McLean County Board
With only a few thousand votes left to be counted, Democrats are poised to seize control of the McLean County Board for the first time.
Democrats are leading in 6 of 9 contested matchups in today's election, as of 10:10 p.m. If those numbers hold, Democrats would have a 12-to-8 majority on the 20-member county board.
Currently, the McLean County Board is split 10-10 between Republicans and Democrats.
Referendum to eliminate elected auditor headed for defeat
A push to eliminate McLean County’s elected auditor’s office appears headed for defeat.
Unofficial results from McLean County and Bloomington show around 55% of voters opposed the auditor referendum as of 9:40 p.m., though about 59% of Bloomington’s precincts still need to be fully counted. McLean County — excluding Bloomington — was done counting at that time.
Michelle Anderson — the current county auditor — is also on the ballot and is running unopposed.
Photo gallery: Democrats and Republicans gather to watch the results come in
WGLT student photographer Katie Cerveny has been traveling between tonight's election watch parties, along with WGLT's team of correspondents.
Republicans are gathering at Rob Dob's restaurant in east Bloomington. Democrats are at the Castle Theatre downtown.
McLean County GOP chair says he hopes early voting will help Republicans this year
The head of the Republican Party in McLean County said he voted early in this election and he hopes more Republicans did the same.
“This time the Republicans put a message out to get early voting out, and bank your vote. We haven’t done that before,” GOP chair Dennis Grundler said tonight at the GOP watch party in Bloomington.
Republicans lost ground in many states during the 2020 presidential election when early and mail-in votes were counted. Donald Trump, when seeking reelection as president, had frequently disparaged early voting — without evidence — as being fraught with fraud, a claim election officials repeatedly denied.
Grundler noted early voting was busy when he cast his ballot a few weeks ago at Eastland Mall.
Grundler said he hopes those who were waiting to vote until today because they were undecided will look beyond the candidates and consider their own situations.
“For those voters the decision wasn’t really about Trump or Harris. It was more about them considering how they’re doing,” Grundler said. “If they’re better off now, stay with the current administration. But if they were better off before, it’s time for a change."
The mood at the GOP gathering is festive. Grundler describes the party more like a gathering of friends who have worked hard, rather than a formal affair.
“I don’t think there’s been anything that has been unexpected yet. Other than he is winning the popular vote right now. So that’s the only thing I wasn't sure about.”
The crowd applauds when Fox News says they called Ohio for Trump.
“If he wins Ohio and Pennsylvania, I feel good. And the other swing states can even split. But if he loses one of those bigger states he could be in trouble.”
Grundler said he is optimistic, but added the Democrats are too.
“Well, someone’s going to be wrong. We’ll find out," he said.
17th Congressional District results are trickling in
Results are starting to trickle in for the 17th Congressional District, which includes parts of Bloomington-Normal.
Freshman U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen is trying to fight off a challenge from Republican Joe McGraw.
Local Democrats gather at Castle Theatre
State Sen. Dave Koehler spoke to McLean County Democrats early in the evening as election results started to come in.
Bloomington-Normal became a new constituency for Koehler in 2022, when Illinois’ new legislative maps extended the 46th Senate District to include parts of McLean County.
Koehler, a Democrat from Peoria who is seeking a sixth term, said he’s “really focused on Bloomington-Normal, just because this is a new district. I felt like I’ve been really welcomed, this is a very warm community.”
Koehler said while spending time in his new portions of the district, he observed “people feel a new sense of energy, a new sense of hope.”
Koehler, who also serves as the Illinois Senate’s assistant majority leader, is running against Republican Sally Owens, a small-business consultant from Peoria.
WGLT's reporters also are on hand to monitor the event.
Long lines die down as polls close at ISU
The last few voters trickled in to find short lines as polls closed on Illinois State University’s campus. Earlier today, voters signing up for same-day registration waited up to two hours to cast their ballots.
A few minutes past 7 p.m., wait times had decreased to 15-20 minutes.
Lead election judge Levi Sturgeon said voter turnout at Bone Student Center exceeded expectations. With some still yet to vote, totals had already surpassed 2,800 people.
“It has been exceptional,” Sturgeon said. “In my history, we’ve not seen election day at ISU over 2,000. It’s been awesome.”
As polls closed, Darrell Hill and Aiden Trentham were two of the last people to get in line.
Hill was previously registered in Chicago, changing to McLean County for his first presidential election.
“Seeing the support from my peers — people who don’t normally participate in politics — if they’re going to go out and vote, I’ll make sure my civic duty is judged correctly today,” said Hill, whose key voting issue is misinformation around inflation and the economy.
Taxes are a primary issue for Trentham, also voting in his first presidential election.
“If you’re not here voting, then you’ve already cast your vote,” he said. “My idea was, if I come at the last minute the lines will be short. And I was right.”
How high will turnout climb in McLean County?
Turnout has increased in at least three straight presidential elections in McLean County. Will it happen again today?
Turnout in McLean County (including Bloomington voters) climbed to 76.57% in 2020, the last presidential election.
Could we hit 80% for 2024? We'll find out in a few hours as the votes are tallied.
Some ISU students frustrated by voter registration lines
Several Illinois State University students expressed frustration about enduring long lines before they cast their ballot today. Those long lines at the Bone Student Center have almost exclusively been students seeking same-day voter registration, which is allowed in Illinois.
ISU sophomore Sophia Ramos said she waited roughly an hour and 40 minutes. She said she was surprised by how long the line was when she got to the Bone Student Center.
“I was definitely shocked, I was very confused,” she said. “But it was kind of a cool experience to have.”
Bone Student Center is ISU’s only on-campus polling site, but also accepts any voters within the McLean County Clerk’s office jurisdiction. That’s everyone in the county except for Bloomington voters.
Ramos said that she felt the long lines could discourage first-time voters like herself.
“Just because it is a long line,” she said. “We still pushed ourselves to come, and it was, like, fine.”
Regardless of the wait, Ramos still expressed that she still enjoyed the voting process. “It was a fun experience,” she said. “I think that it was interesting … it was pretty cool.”
Other students stood in line to register and vote as well, including three freshmen. Iyona Benson, Phikia Lewis and Vallesia Robinson all agreed the wait was around two hours.
“It didn’t actually take me long to get in there, it was standing in line,” said Robinson.
They said while the wait was long, it was still moving at a good pace. “For as many students as it is, it moves pretty fast,” said Lewis.
Added Benson, “We were together, and we were distracting each other.”
They also agreed the long lines could be discouraging to new voters, and they had an example.
“We [saw] a friend of ours and she literally came in, and we were kind of at the front of the line,” Robinson said.
Lewis finished her sentence and said, “She was like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to vote.’”
Robinson replied, “I was like, ‘Queen, I told you, register early and it wouldn’t be a problem.’”
Benson agreed with both of her friends. “I think some people don’t even care about voting, so seeing the long lines…,” she said.
Benson and Lewis agreed with Robinson, saying registering early would help more students avoid the long lines and be more willing to vote.
What officials are saying
When asked about the lines at Bone Student Center, McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael said she was not aware of any complaints from students.
“They are thrilled they can register to vote and vote. They thought they missed it, so they were excited about that,” she said.
Michael said her office doubled the number of election judges at that site, compared with 2020.
Representatives from ISU’s Center for Civic Engagement have been on hand providing information to voters to support them through the same-day voter registration process. The center also engaged the nonprofit Pizza to the Polls, which sent Rosatti’s around 2:30 p.m. for those waiting in line.
“We’re trying to do things like that, just creature comforts to make sure that folks are taken care of while they’re in line,” said center associate director Paige Buschman. “It’s pretty clear we don’t have to convince them. They’re coming and electing to stay in line. We’re telling them how long the wait is and they’re getting in line anyway. They’re really motivated to participate.”
Because the Center for Civic Engagement was only formed in 2017, they didn’t have much information to draw from to assist with recommendations.
“We don’t have solid data from 2020 because most people weren’t on campus,” Buschman said. “It was hard for us to guess what this turnout would look like and we’re learning a lot from this election.”
Buschman said changes in line management could ease the bottleneck for same-day registration. But with lines extending at times from the Brown Ballroom poll site out the doors to Milner Library, future presidential elections may require hiring more workers, or a second polling place on campus.
“Short of increasing staff again, which I’m sure is something the clerk will be talking about, I don’t know that there was much else that could have been done,” Buschman said.
The center gave more than 60 events and presentations and sent four campus emails with information explaining the voting process and encouraging early voting.
“Continuing to push early voting and online voter registration will be important to our future success,” said Buschman. “The bottom line is, the Bone Student Center is the largest building on campus and the Brown Ballroom is one of the largest buildings in the Bone. If we’re at capacity, we have to do more with early voting.”
Vidette editor-in-chief Maggee Bleyer and Vidette reporter Cole Loiacano contributed to this story.
First-timers in B-N share what issues drove them to vote
For many living in Bloomington-Normal, this is their first time voting in a presidential election.
WGLT digital producer Emily Bollinger talked to 10 young voters at the Illinois State University polling place this afternoon to learn about the issues that drove each of them to vote.
Voting is going smoothly in Bloomington with 9,000 ballots cast on Election Day as of the afternoon
Voting is going smoothly for the City of Bloomington, which counts its ballots separate from the rest of McLean County, said Luke Stremlau, executive director of the Bloomington Election Commission.
“It takes one bump in the road for everything to kind of go a little haywire,” he said. “So right now, I'm very lucky to say that everything is going smoothly.”
Around 9,000 Bloomington residents had cast their ballots on Election Day as of 1:30 p.m., according to Stremlau. Early voting numbers totaled around 15,000, and vote-by-mail was at 7,500.
The polling place at Illinois Wesleyan University has been busy, Stremlau said, adding that election judges had registered around 230 students from same-day voter registration by the afternoon.
While that "pales in comparison" to the numbers at Illinois State University [ISU], Stremlau said, "it's still a busy day for those election judges" at IWU. (Around 1,200 people had voted at ISU’s polling place as of the afternoon, according to the McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael).
Meanwhile, at Eastland Mall — a catch-all polling place for residents across the city — Stremlau said voter turnout has been low. He didn't have exact numbers to share but said it’s common for people to vote at their respective polling places on Election Day.
"That's a part of their voting experience,” he said. “If they're going to wait the 40 days that Illinois has for early voting to vote on Election Day, typically they want to see the election judges and people that they've been around in the community for so long.”
Stremlau encouraged people to be nice to the election judges, particularly later in the evening. He added that as long as people are in line by 7 p.m., they'll get their chance to vote.
County Clerk says there's a big voter turnout in rural McLean County
Rural McLean County has had a “big turnout” as of Tuesday afternoon, according to McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael.
"I think I saw Heyworth is up to 1,000,” she said. “That's a lot.”
Election judges told Michael the day started out slow with around 100 voters, then 300 as the morning wore on.
“They just called in,” she said in a conversation around 2 p.m. “‘Well, we're at 1,000’ [they said] — and they don't have lines, and they're moving along.”
Long lines at Bone as 70% of voters are doing same-day registrations
There’s a long line this afternoon at the polling place at Illinois State University’s Bone Student Center, but only for those who needed to register to vote. WGLT didn’t see much of a line for those voters already registered locally.
Several people who voted said they waited around two hours.
Around 70% of people voting at Bone Student Center are doing same-day registration, said McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael. She gave that update just around 2 p.m.
Same-day registration, she added, takes around 10 minutes. That's roughly double the time registration takes in the early voting period.
"Everybody understands that, and they've got their two IDs with them, and they're thrilled that they can register to vote," Michael said. "A lot of them thought they missed it, so they were excited about that."
People who are registering on Election Day are required to fill out forms by hand.
Based on turnout at Bone for the 2020 presidential election, Michael said the number of election judges were doubled at the polling location. This year, around 50 judges are staffing the student center, and the electioneering area has expanded to two rooms.
Some election judges were being sent over this afternoon, as well. Around 1,200 people had voted at the Bone as of 2:30 p.m., Michael said on her Facebook Page.
Still, Michael said long lines will inevitably cause long waits.
"If there's 500 people in line, that does delay things a little bit," she said.
3 things to watch for tonight in McLean County
Some Bloomington voters make a point of waiting until Election Day to cast their ballot
Wesley United Methodist Church in Bloomington had more than 105 voters had cast ballots as of 10 a.m.
It's one of 23 polling sites in Bloomington and includes precincts 9, 57 and 58.
Several voters said it was important for them to cast their ballot on election day.
“I wanted to make sure I had a clear and concise thought coming into this election I considered early voting,” said Bloomington voter Seth Johnson. ”I kind of already had a candidate in mind but I just wanted to make sure all the way up until last night just to have my final thoughts.”
Johnson said he believes Election Day should be a national holiday to make it easier for people to vote if they don’t vote early or by mail.
As he stood under an awning that shielded the rain, Ron Gardner of Bloomington said it was important to him to cast his ballot on Election Day — and no degree of bad weather would stop him.
“They sent me ballots, but I wanted to do it in person myself because that’s how I believe we should do it,” he said.
Gardner said stable leadership was a key factor in his voter selections, adding he believes government has enough checks and balances in place.
“No one is going to do whatever they want to do,” he said.
Some polling sites in Normal report slow start to Election Day morning
Just more than an hour into Election Day voting, Dave Hauman, the election judge working the Jacob's Well Community Church polling site in Normal, had counted around 25 votes.
"That's a little slower than what we've had in previous elections," Hauman told WGLT. "I think that's due to the large number of folks who have [done] early voting."
McLean County's two election authorities have reported a record total of votes cast during the 40-day early voting period, with both in-person and mail-in early votes surpassing more than 30,000.
Hauman, who has been working as an election judge for several election cycles, said he thinks those totals will impact foot traffic at in-person voting sites today.
"I think, overall, the turnout is going to be very heavy, but because so many folks have voted early, the turnout today might not be as heavy as we first thought," he said.
Still, that traffic may vary from site to site: Lynne Doren, an election judge working at Normal's Calvary Baptist Church polling site, said by the time the polls opened, there were already people waiting to vote.
"We had five people standing in line at 6 this morning, which was great. We've had really good turnout so far: We're at 65 [voters], which is excellent," she said. "I've never had people standing in line at 6 in the morning, ever, in my election cycles here. So it's really good participation today."
Meanwhile, at the Normal First United Methodist Church polling site near Illinois State University, only 11 voters had stopped by within the first couple of hours of Election Day.
Election judge Carolyn Yockey said poll workers are waiting to see what kind of turnout the day brings for that site since its precinct lines were redrawn before the primary elections in March.
"That has totally changed who comes into this place — it's more students," she said. "Before that, it used to be a lot of long-term residents, so we were used to a totally different flow than we get now. I don't know how to read the flow today; I have no expectations."
Yockey added that the church polling site had been designated as a "vote center," which allows it to accept voters who may not live within the precinct — a measure aimed at ensuring people who may not be aware of the precinct changes could still cast their ballots there.
Normal resident Julia Scholl, who spoke to WGLT after casting her ballot, said she hopes everyone who can vote chooses to do so.
"I'm hoping that young people come out and realize how important this is," she said. "I think a lot of [people] feel they aren't educated enough to have a choice. Well, vote for the ones that you are educated about — or educate yourself. You can't complain about how things are going if you don't come out and make your opinion heard. It's your way of having a say in how the country runs."
What to expect tonight as local vote-counting begins
Polls close at 7 p.m. tonight in McLean County (and throughout Illinois). That’s when vote-counting begins.
As a reminder, McLean County has TWO election authorities. The county clerk’s office serves voters who live in Normal and in rural McLean County. The Bloomington Election Commission [BEC] serves voters who live – you guessed it – in Bloomington.
Tonight, you can track results on the County Clerk’s website and the Bloomington Election Commission website. Each has a dedicated Results page that will be updated regularly as votes from each precinct are tallied. It usually takes several hours for all precincts to report their results, and even then, those are UNOFFICIAL results for the next few weeks until the count is finalized.
For local races with votes in BOTH jurisdictions, you can follow WGLT’s public Results Tracker to see those tallies merged together into a single count. That includes McLean County Board districts that include voters in both jurisdictions, as well as the ballot question about eliminating the countywide elected auditor’s office.
Both the county clerk and the BEC will be reporting Early Voter and Vote-By-Mail first, so those will be the first numbers you see pop up on the Results pages tonight.
WGLT.org will also have live results for Illinois General Assembly and congressional races in our area, via The Associated Press. Those results will start flowing after polls close at 7 p.m.
Elections in the U.S. are highly decentralized and complex. While uncontested or landslide races may be called right after polls close, competitive races may take days, or even weeks to call. And while some states like Florida count most of the ballots on Election Day, other states, like California, can take weeks. Read more about the process of vote counting and how races are called here.
What to do if you see problems on Election Day
Law enforcement officials are reminding the public how to contact them if they see any problems – such as threats of violence or voting rights concerns – on Election Day.
The top federal prosecutor in Central Illinois, Greg Harris, encourages you to contact Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Darilynn J. Knauss (309-671-7050) in his Peoria branch office to report possible federal election law violations. That includes Election Day complaints of voting rights concerns, threats of violence to election officials or staff, and election fraud.
“Every citizen must be able to vote without interference or discrimination and to have that vote counted in a fair and free election,” Harris said. “Similarly, election officials and staff must be able to serve without being subject to unlawful threats of violence. The Department of Justice will always work tirelessly to protect the integrity of the election process.”
In the case of violence or intimidation, please call 911 immediately and before contacting federal authorities. State and local police have primary jurisdiction over polling places, and almost always have faster reaction capacity in an emergency.
McLean County surpasses 43,000 early votes
McLean County's two election authorities report more than 43,000 voters cast ballots in the general election either voting by mail or in-person at an early voting site.
The Bloomington Election Commission, which handles all elections in the city of Bloomington, reported 14,467 early votes and 7,225 vote-by-mail ballots returned.
The McLean County clerk's office, which handles all elections in the county outside of Bloomington, reports it received 15,829 early ballots, plus 6,123 vote-by-mail ballots returned.
That means more than one-third of the county's registered voters cast their ballots before Election Day.
Eastland Mall, a primary early voting site for both offices, saw long lines on Monday, the final day for early voting in Illinois.
It’s finally here: Polls are now open on Election Day
Election Day is finally here. Polling places are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. today.
You can find your polling place (based on your address) on the State Board of Elections website.
Not sure what will be on your ballot other than the presidential race? Go to Vote411.org, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, and plug in your address to see what you’ll be voting on.
Then, you can visit the WGLT Voter Guide to read about candidates and issues on your ballot.
Not registered to vote? Illinois offers Election Day registration so you can still vote! State law requires that Election Day registrants register and vote during the same visit. You are required to bring two forms of identification to register. You may register and vote at your home polling place or at the vote center.