I've recently become interested in the voting patterns of Chicago's collar counties, that is, the primary suburban counties of Chicago.
The area is defined as comprising DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, and McHenry Counties, sometimes including Kendall and Grundy counties as well.
The region has historically been pretty republican, but has been more swingy in the past two elections (no doubt due to favorite son status). I've decided to look at how the region as a whole has voted in presidential elections.
For this, I will use the five counties outlined above, while also making secondary calculations to include Kendall and Grundy Counties.
Anyways, here are the results (with more yet to come):
2012:
Total votes cast: 1,282,621 votes.
Barack Obama (D): 647,575 votes - 50.49%Mitt Romney (R): 613,712 votes - 47.85%Others: 21,334 votes - 1.66%
2008:
Total votes cast: 1,337,983 votes.
Barack Obama (D): 745,390 votes - 55.71%John McCain (R): 573,576 votes - 42.87%Others: 19,017 - 1.42%
And also... My 500th post!!!