How Lake County Voted In The 2020 Election

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. - The 2020 Election is now almost one week in the past. While the results continue to roll in across the country from mail-in and absentee ballots, there is now a comprehensive view of how Buffalo Grove and Lake County as a whole voted in the election.

The majority of the state's contests, including the presidential and senatorial races, were called on election night. However, additional mail-in ballots will continue to be counted through Tuesday, Nov. 10, although based on the current trends, this is unlikely to change any of Illinois' outcomes.

Illinois as a whole has historically been Democratic for a long time, with the state voting blue in every presidential election since 1992. This trend continued for the most part at the higher governmental offices. Democratic candidate and now President-Elect Joe Biden carried the state over incumbent Donald Trump, winning the state's 20 electoral votes. Sen. Dick Durbin also won another term on Capitol Hill, defeating his challenger Mark Curran, the former sheriff of Lake County. Durbin, the current Senate Democratic Whip, has served in the United States Senate since 1996.

While the Democratic trend continued for the most part in Lake County, there were some early surprises. Due to an influx of mail-in ballots arriving late, the majority of races in the county were leading Republican in the early hours of Election Night, a phenomenon political analysts have called a 'red mirage'. Once the mail-in ballots began arriving, Lake County swung heavily Democratic. One particular contest had the Democratic candidate for the 19th Judicial Circuit, Marnie Slavin, defeating Republican candidate Chris Morozin after being down thousands of votes until Wednesday, when the mail-in ballots called the race in Slavin's favor.

Overall, while Lake County did finish off the election sticking heavily blue, there were still some Republican upsets, especially in red-leaning towns such as Waukegan and Round Lake. In particular, Republican candidate Jeanne Ives, running for the 6th Congressional District, won Lake County, although she ended up losing her bid to un-seat incumbent Sean Casten. The 14th Congressional District is also extremely close, with Republican candidate Jim Oberweis winning Lake County and claiming victory over incumbent Lauren Underwood, although Underwood is now leading overall and a re-count is likely as both Lake and Kane County are updating their results.

Lake County was also handily won by Democrat Brad Schneider, the Representative to the 10th Congressional District. Schneider has been in the House of Representatives since 2017 after previously serving from 2013 to 2015.

The full results of the 2020 Election in Lake County can be found at Clarity Elections, and the percentages of the major contests are reported as such:

US President and US Vice President

• DEMOCRATIC: Joseph R. Biden Jr. / Kamala D. Harris 59.17%
• REPUBLICAN: Donald J. Trump / Michael R. Pence 38.96%
• LIBERTARIAN: Jo Jorgensen / Jeremy 'Spike' Cohen 1.19%
• GREEN: Howie Hawkins / Angela Walker 0.42%
• AMERICAN SOLIDARITY PARTY: Brian Carroll / Amar Patel 0.15%
• PARTY FOR SOCIALISM & LIBERATION: Gloria La Riva / Leonard Peltier 0.11%

US Senate

• DEMOCRATIC: Richard J. 'Dick' Durbin 54.91%
• REPUBLICAN: Mark C. Curran 41.07%
• WILLIE WILSON PARTY: Willie Wilson 2.3%
• LIBERATRIAN: Danny Malouf 1.07%
• GREEN: David F. Black 0.68%

US Representative in 6th Congressional District

• REPUBLICAN: Jeanne Ives 52.26%
• DEMOCRATIC: Sean Casten 46.40%
• LIBERTARIAN: Bill Redpath 1.36%

US Representative in 10th Congressional District

• DEMOCRATIC: Brad Schneider 62.57%
• REPUBLICAN: Valerie Ramirez Mukherjee 37.43%

US Representative in 14th Congressional District*

• REPUBLICAN: Jim Oberweis 51.34%
• DEMOCRATIC: Lauren Underwood 48.66%

*This race has not been officially called for either candidate