Chicago's collar counties as a voting bloc

[RedSLC]

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!!!

[ElectionsGuy]

Thanks for the info and picture. There was a huge swing from '08 to '12 in Illinois, even more so in the South. But the suburbs made most of the swing up as Cook stayed mostly the same.

Congrats on your YaBB God achievement.

[RedSLC]

Congrats on your YaBB God achievement.

Thank you.

More results:

2004:
Total votes cast: 1,222,595 votes.
John Kerry (D): 555,764 votes - 45.46%
George W. Bush (R): 657,188 votes - 53.75%
Others: 9,713 votes - 0.79%

2000:
Total votes cast: 1,045,786 votes.
Al Gore (D): 459,335 votes - 43.92%
George W. Bush (R): 556,961 votes - 53.26%
Others: 29,290 votes - 2.82%

In both elections, Bush swept all five counties.