Election Night Prep On the Governor’s Race

As we prepare for Election Night coverage, I wanted to pass along a couple of tools that might allow you to be a more-informed voter/citizen when it comes to parsing the returns.

First, take a look at this great online tool from pollster We Ask America. WAA was one of the most prolific polling firms through the campaign season. You can use the tool to project how increased or decreased turnout in different regions of the state might impact election results. Here's where you can see what affect certain benchmarks the Rauner campaign is targeting might have on the overall results. For example, plug in 20 percent support in the city of Chicago. Or plug in 43.5 percent supports in suburban Cook County (what Mark Kirk received when he won the U.S. Senate race in 2010).

Meanwhile, the website Illinois Election Data did a tremendous job on Primary Night of interpreting results as they rolled in. They've made available some of their info, culled from previous elections. Here, take a look at historic vote share by Media Market:

And here, you can see historic data by region. As author Scott Kennedy points out:

Bruce Rauner has publicly stated a goal of 20% in the City of Chicago. Prior to 2010 the Cook County suburbs had been a perfect bellweather for the state as a whole, but then 2010 Kirk and 2010 Rutherford became the first two candidates to win statewide without winning the Cook County suburbs for at least the last couple of decades. In the last Governor’s race the downstate vote was historically interesting. Each of these regions has a story to tell.

We'll be here with you Tuesday night as the numbers roll in, with help from Fox News Radio and a number of guests through the evening.