The primary election in Illinois took place on 18th March 2014. Voters were expected to vote for the three main categories in order to narrow down the number of candidates running in the general elections. The three main categories of Illinois elections 2014 include the State Central Committee men, Precinct Committee men and the township committee men.
It is one of the thirty four states that allow voters to vote early . Early voting begins fifteen days prior to the election date and ends three days before the date. Therefore, the actual date of early voting should be set twenty one days prior to the election date. The voters are required to have government issued photo identification. There are no specific requirements as to who should vote early.
Voters will be expected to vote for the eighteen candidates from the respective districts to the United States House of Representatives. There will also be 18 representatives to the house of congress and the senate. The different districts will therefore choose from the finalists after the primary elections. The senate executive officers to be elected include the Governor, the secretary of state, the comptroller, the treasurer and the attorney general.
Lisa Madigan who was elected in 2002 as Attorney General is eligible for reelection. Although she had been considered a strong candidate to run for the governors office, she announced her intention to run for reelection. She will be running against Paul Schimpf of the Republican Party among other third party candidates.
Jesse White, the current Secretary of state will be running for re-election for a fifth term. He will be running against Mike Wester the republican candidate. The elected candidate will be the custodian of all official records and the state seal of Illinois. He will also be running against other third party candidates including Chris Michael and Sheldon Shaffer.
The current state comptroller Judy Baar will be running for reelection for a second term. She will be running under the Republican Party. The Democratic Party Candidate for state comptroller will be Sheila Simon who is currently the lieutenant General of the state. There are other who will be contesting for the other two offices.
As the election date nears, it is still difficult to know who will finally will the elections. Campaigns are at their climax being the last few months to the big day. The reelection of Pat Quin as governor has definitely been the highlight of this election season. His corrupt government has not helped much in his re-election and could greatly affect his re-election.
It is clear that the people of Illinois will take up their constitutional right to vote given the increased number of registered voters. There has also been increased change in the party affiliations that was seen during the primary elections. This is due to the fact that the state has a primary hybrid system. This system allows voters to declare their party affiliation at the polls as opposed to the common declaration during registration. Voters are therefor allowed to change affiliation as they wish but declare one during the polls.
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