With barely any of the actual votes counted, and the polls still open in Kane County, The Associated Press reports that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has won re-election.

The AP made the call based on a statistical analysis of exit polling. The governor may have indeed been re-elected, but it seems sporting to wait for the polls to close to announce the winner. Seems prudent to count at least some of the votes.

In the end, the only poll that counts is the one taken throughout the day in 11,692 precincts in the state of Illinois. It could be several hours before we know those results.

The 13-year-old girl peeked over the shoulder of her mother as she filled in the little ovals next to candidates’ names.

Debbie MacFarland had brought her daughter Ashley to the Moline polling place for a reason.

“I wanted her to see the voting process,” Mrs. MacFarland said with resolve. “This is the first time I brought her with me.

“She said, ‘I want to stay home,’ but I said, ‘Why don’t you come with me?’” Mrs. MacFarland recalled and laughed.

Her daughter smiled weakly and mustered an “OK” when asked her opinion of the voting process.

After a little motherly prodding, Ashley said, “I think it’s neat to let out your thoughts on who should be in office.”

Her mother jumped in and said, “And to exercise your right as a citizen of the United States.”

Mrs. MacFarland is a registered Democrat and voted a straight ticket during this election.

The numerous negative ads were unfortunate, she said. “It disturbs me that (candidates) don’t seem to talk about what they stand for.”

“Their behavior is unfortunate,” Mrs. MacFarland said. “A lot of people get discouraged and don’t vote.”

Her daughter agreed with her, saying that candidates shouldn’t be so negative when they talk about their opponents.

By Jenny Lee

Democratic Congressional hopeful Phil Hare spoke briefly to reporters about 5:30 p.m. saying he still needed to get his lucky Milwaukee Braves hat for the election party and that he spoke briefly to his mentor, Rep. Lane Evans.

Mr. Hare spoke on a conference call, touching on turn out, his busy day that started at 4:45 a.m. at the Oscar Meyer plant in Davenport, before going to vote, where he had to stand in line. He made stops in Galesburg and Canton during the day. He hopes to see Rep. Evans at the party tonight.

Following the conference call, he said he would go make a more phone calls and knock on doors before the polls close at 7 p.m.

“I said all along I was going to work until 7:01 p.m.,” Mr. Hare said. “At every location I reached out to undecided voters.”

He believes about 1,600 people will have volunteered for the campaign and that he will have raised about $830,000 by the time the election is over.

Signs for GOP candidates lined the walls of the Rock Island County Republican Party headquarters in Moline.

Party leader Susie Carpentier said she and a few other volunteers were there to answer voters’ questions. Most voters’ called in to ask where they should go to vote. Others reported about problems with optical scanner machines.

Ms. Carpentier said she’s heard there have been problems resetting some optical scanner machines after they’ve become full of ballots. But those are minor problems, she said.

As for voters, the Republicans are trying to get as many voters as they can find to get out to the polling places.

Ms. Carpentier said she thinks Steve Haring is going to beat incumbent Mike Boland for the 71st District Illinois House seat.

“But it’s going to be close,” she said.

The election has been exhausting, Ms. Carpentier said.

“The waiting is the worst part. All of us have been up since four or five this morning. It’s been nothing but adrenaline,” Ms. Carpentier said.

“I’m used to the craziness of campaigns,” she said, having helped out during election season for many years.

The election cycle is never over since the presidential election is next.

“Tomorrow, we’re gearing up for two more years,” Ms. Carpentier said.

Posted by Jenny Lee

A sticker stuck to John Gianulis’ desk shows head shots of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and says, “Impeach the Bastards.”

The Rock Island County Democratic Party Chairman sat in his office at party headquarters in Rock Island, answering questions from callers.

Out of 96,000 registered voters in the county, Mr. Gianulis estimated that 45,000 to 50,000 people would vote for Democratic candidates.

“By and large, we’re doing well here in Rock Island County and western Illinois,” he said. “The mindset is to get every vote out there.”

The race between Democratic incumbent Mike Boland and Republican candidate Steve Haring is very heated.

“That’s going to be a challenge,” Mr. Gianulis said. “I feel confident that Boland will pull it off,” he said.

The results are in from the 17th Congressional District straw poll conducted by Country Style, with Phil Hare and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream claiming victory over Andrea Zinga and strawberry ice cream.

The results were announced by Country Style today, with 666 votes cast between the company’s Moline and East Moline stores. Mr. Hare received 360, or 54 percent of the vote between the two stores. He enjoyed a wider margin of victory — 55 percent — at the East Moline store despite a smaller vote total.

Remember, this was not a scientific poll.

One by one, each ballot disappeared into the bowels of the optical scanner machine at the First Church of the Nazarene in Rock Island.

One voter reported to the Dispatch and Argus earlier that the machine was having trouble in the morning.

The only time the machine wasn’t working was when it became full of ballots.

“As soon as we got it empty, it was ready to go again,” said election judge Les Anderson as he handed out “I voted” stickers to residents.

Another election judge Corinne Potter pointed out that there are far more voters than the last election. “It’s partly due to the lovely weather and partly due to the nature of this election,” she said.

About 910 people voted by 1:30 p.m., and only four to five people were told they had to go to another polling place, election judges said.

Mr. Anderson said he voted early at the Rock Island County Clerk’s Office on an electronic voting machine.

“I wanted to vote early ’cause I was workin’ today,” he said cheerfully.

I have my “I Voted” sticker now. Picked it up about 1 p.m. at the Lodge at Duck Creek Park in Davenport. I was voter No. 478. That puts the precinct about on target for the turnout in the last mid-term election in 2002. That year, 951 people voted in Davenport 61.

The long hallway led to a bunch of ordinary citizens with the power to decide who stays or who goes.

I was in a good mood this morning, despite the fact that two drunk 20-somethings blasted music from their car at 4 in the morning outside my apartment.

Four and a half hours later, I drove up the road to my polling place in Moline just after 8:30 a.m., looking forward to fill in those ovals next to certain names.

I vote because I want to have a say in who gets elected to office. Before I left, an election judge told me that 216 people voted before a quarter to 9.

I doubt my neighbors would be getting up to go to their polling place.

Phil Hare, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 17th District, receives his ballot after waiting in line with numerous others Tuesday morning at the First Church of the Nazarene in Rock Island. Hare said he was going to Galesburg, Canton and Macomb to help work some phones before returning to Rock Island for election results

Republican congressional candidate Andrea Zinga also was out early. She cast her vote at the Rock Reception Center in Coal Valley, where voters on Coal Valley precincnts 1, 2 and 3 votes.