How Did McHenry County Vote For President?

CRYSTAL LAKE, CARY, IL — As the nation waits to hear who the next president of the United States will be, early results show McHenry County voters favored Donald Trump this election. According to unofficial results, 79,396 voters selected Trump over Democratic challenger Joe Biden, who brought in 73,610 votes as of early Wednesday.

That amounts to 50.63 percent of voters picking Trump and 46.94 percent going for Biden. The pick for a Republican presidential candidate would be nothing new. The reliably red county was the only Chicago area collar county to pick Trump in 2016 — during that election, 50.33 percent voted for Trump, compared to 42 percent who went for Hillary Clinton.

In 2012, when Republican Mitt Romney ran against Barack Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, McHenry County picked Romney.

Meanwhile, the rest of the state has picked a Democratic candidate the past seven elections. And this year appears to be no different. Shortly after polls closed on Tuesday, the Associated Press announced Biden had won Illinois and its 20 electoral votes.

• Election Results: Biden Wins Illinois, AP Reports
  
• Patch 2016 Election Coverage: McHenry County is Only Collar County to Pick Donald Trump

But with potentially 18,000 more mail-in ballots still to be counted in McHenry County, it's too early to say decisively if Trump will again be voters' pick. McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio told Patch Tuesday the final results in McHenry County races will be posted on the clerk's website on Nov. 18.

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Clerk's offices historically have two weeks to tally provisional ballots, which typically make up a small fraction of the vote totals. But with an influx in mail-in ballots requested this election, leaders in close races could be flipped when all is said and done.

All mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3 to be counted.

The number of ballots cast in 2020 has already surpassed the 2016 presidential election tallies in McHenry County. So far, 157,666 of the 237,640 registered voters have cast their ballot. In 2016, 145,254 of the 218,178 registered voters voted in the presidential election in McHenry County, according to clerk's office data.

The majority of votes were cast before Election Day this year. As of early Wednesday, 66385 McHenry County residents cast their ballot early, which was 27 percent of the vote total; 49,740 residents voted by mail, which is 20.2 percent of the vote total; and 45,854 voted on Election Day, which amounted to 18.6 percent of votes.