If pollsters are right, we are on the verge of a political rebellion once the dust settles from the midterm elections. Or maybe not.
Nationwide, polls are showing a Democratic landslide in the midterm elections, with the party taking control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. If so, it would be a total repudiation of President Donald Trump’s Republican administration.
Polls could be wrong, though. Some may remember the surveys in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election when Hilary Clinton was destined to be the nation’s first female president. Like what Illinoisan Adlai Stevenson II said about his presidential run, “a funny thing happened” to her on the way to the White House. Polls turned out to be wrong, and President Trump was elected to his first term.
That is always the fear of those accepting the current polling data, which predict a bad day for Republicans across the board. Turnout numbers of those casting ballots early before Election Day would indicate that may be the case.
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In blue-leaning Lake County, there has been a record-breaking return rate for early voters in a midterm election, according to a social media post last week by County Clerk Anthony Vega. In this election, more than 76,000 ballots had been returned as of last week.
That compares to the 2022 midterms when 60,796 ballots were returned for counting to the clerk’s office. In the 2018 midterms, 65,029 ballots were returned, Vega stated.
Nearly 1.4 million Illinoisans have already voted, according to The Associated Press, including Pope Leo XIV, the first pope to vote in a U.S. election. The pontiff, an American citizen, submitted a mail-in ballot as a registered voter from a Will County precinct.
Early voting is way up since the last midterm elections in 2022. Voters nationwide have returned a total of nearly 55 million advance ballots in the 2026 general election, according to reports. Some states are seeing surges of up to 50% more voters casting early ballots than four years ago.
That is out of about 205 million registered voters. Competitive races are bringing out crowds. Nearly 10 million more Americans have cast ballots in person or by mail than in 2022, according to The Associated Press.
Perhaps the Illinois early voting numbers are due to a half-dozen open congressional races, the rare vacancy for a U.S. Senate seat, the gubernatorial contest and the heated Chicago Public School board president’s race.
In Lake County, the early turnout record may be tied to the countywide referendum to add an additional 1% sales tax to be used for school facilities, school resource officers and mental health professionals. Public school district administrators across the county pushed to get the proposition on the ballot, which, if adopted, will add more to county homeowners’ tax burden.
The cost of living for Americans and Illinoisans is also driving the interest in the election. Inflation, much of it tied to Trump’s ill-advised air war against Iran. Record diesel prices — up 71% since last year, according to AAA — have accompanied the military action.
Economic uncertainty is noted for getting voters off their couches and into voting booths. Lake County families, like those across the nation, are coping with higher prices for gasoline, groceries, housing and health care.
Punishing the GOP for rising costs could be on voters’ minds. That, along with party candidates’ support of Trump’s wacky ideas such as acquiring Greenland, making Canada our 51st state, tariffs, redecorating the White House, and reimagining a legendary Washington, D.C. golf course.
Yet, dozens of U.S. Senate and congressional contests are so close that a polling error of a few percentage points could shift the outcome from possible Democratic control to two more years of Republican leadership. Democrats are giddy over the prospect of snatching Senate seats and gubernatorial races in normally red states.
With that in mind, members of the Tenth Dems organization based in Lake County knocked on doors over the weekend in Milwaukee. That’s where the competitive Wisconsin governor’s contest between Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany and Democrat Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley is going down to the wire. America’s Dairyland is one of 36 states, including the Land of Lincoln, holding gubernatorial races on Tuesday.
In Illinois, Gov. JB Pritzker, seeking his third four-year term, has a rematch with his 2022 opponent, Republican Darren Bailey. The governor is expected to cruise to victory.
If the pollsters are right about the Nov. 3 election and the turnouts, that’s what democracy looks like when the electorate decides to take charge in the voting booth. And just a few years ago folks were fretting over the demise of democracy and the future of the republic.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor, and editor. [email protected]. X @sellenews