>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

It is Election Day in Illinois will have a live report with the latest on voter turnout.

Plus, when we can expect to see some results after polls close.

Plus, what are some of the key races to watch tonight and what they could mean for November midterms?

In Chicago when you feed your ballot machine on Election Day.

>> You're essentially putting it in a ballot box with 2 compartments.

And what exactly happens to your ballot after you vote.

>> We explain.

>> First off tonight, the big day is finally here as voters across Illinois cast ballots in the primary election.

Residents across the state are weighing in on number of key races, including some statewide races like the hotly contested Democratic primary for U.S.

Senate polls close at 7 tonight.

But if you're still in line, stay in line because anyone who's there at 07:00PM has the right to cast a ballot.

We'll have much more on the races in voter turnout coming up in the program.

And we should also note we will be live at 10:00PM tonight to bring you results after polls close.

A Chicago firefighter with just under 2 years experience on the force has died while on duty.

We are heartbroken by yet another loss of our own.

>> Michael gave everything in service to the people of Chicago and we will never forget his courage and sacrifice.

Our deepest condolences go out to the family, fellow firefighters, grandson, all that loved him and knew him.

>> Fire Commissioner Annette Nance Holt says 32 year-old Michael Altman was assigned a truck.

47 in Edgewater, a fundraising page for Altman's family says he was conducting a primary search of the building yesterday in the 1700 block of west North Shore Avenue in Rogers Park when he fell through the floor into a room fully engulfed in flames.

He was taken to the burn unit at Stroger but died of his injuries today.

The fundraising page says he has one young child and his wife is expecting another.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Charli XCX John Summit, Olivia, Dina Smashing Pumpkins just a few of the headliners named for this summer's Lollapalooza summer festival announced today.

annual Music Fest takes place in Grant Park July 30th through August.

2nd, other performers include K-Pop groups like Cordice, also somber 5 seconds of summer and will use the vert.

>> Adding up to more than 100 artists on 8 stages this year to 4 day festival is adding several premium hospitality experiences, including suites and a speakeasy lounge.

Presale tickets start this Thursday.

And for more on today's election and how the voter turnout is shaping up, we're joined by Joanna Hernandez who's live at the Chicago Board of Elections Super site along State Street.

>> Joe Anne Hart, things running so far.

>> Brandis things seem to be running pretty smoothly here.

We do see a line along State Street.

But like I just said, you can see this line is going in and now that just goes to show the people who are working here in the operation that they have here is running pretty smoothly.

And here to talk about this year's midterm elections is Max Bever.

ex ever.

He's the director of public information at the Board of Elections.

Thank you for joining us.

You are the man was in charge of all the numbers.

No, no pressure.

One of many.

How would you describe this year's early elections?

>> So we were heading into this election like a lion, but we might be exiting like a lamb.

We saw really record breaking early voting and vote by mail ballots being returned before Election Day.

Election Day has been a little bit sleepy or but as you can see, we're seeing a surge in our later hours like we usually see for a primary election.

We're going to be twenty-twenty two's numbers, but we might not be 20 eighteen's going to probably somewhere in between 2018 had 32% citywide turnout 2022 had 22% citywide turnout.

remember, we do have many vote by mail ballots that still need to be counted.

So it didn't surprise her patterns that you're seeing a trend.

Yes, we've seen women lead the way so far today, but it's also election that's been driven by older voters, especially 55 and up.

That's pretty traditional for primary elections.

But we are seeing a surge of voters in our last 2 hours and a lot more younger voters under 30 that are showing up in these last 2.

I mean, that's really interesting.

Also talk to me about the people who work here with trained to poll workers get.

>> Leading up to election day to what you're seeing are people who are early voting officials who are also serving on Election Day.

He's a people at the super site.

They've already been working for 4 weeks.

They're the ones that are always the most camera friendly when it comes to our election judges, they receive at least 4 hours of training.

You know, when you're standing by and we've had by just putting all of our polling places today to make sure that we were fully staffed.

And thankfully we've seen a smooth and safe election and dare I say, just a little bit boring.

But like to see more the board of elections.

But I can imagine they're also working hard.

These are some similar faces that I've seen before.

That's right.

just goes to show we're lucky enough to have early voting.

Officials joined U.S.

year after year.

They love the super site downtown.

>> And that's why they come back to this year after it.

Let's talk about misinformation.

Have you safeguard against munsif misinformation about elections?

That's very tough.

And we know that like a day like Election Day, we're not tracking everything that's out on social media.

So we do our best to put out the right information.

So no matter what you should be checking Chicago elections dot Gov for all Information.

Don't trust that Facebook page that you see or what somebody might be reporting.

You can always come to us.

Give us a call at 312-269-7900, or visit our website.

That's a good point because a lot of people seem to be going to Facebook sometimes, but it's good to double check its natural.

But you should be going to your election authority to confirm all information.

Now, let's talk about mail-in ballots.

We know that more people are avoiding through mount a house Chicago Board of Elections addressing risk to mail-in ballots after the United States Postal Service change.

How post marks are being are being dated.

So part of record breaking numbers we saw for pre-election voting was a lot by mail ballots coming back that showed us that Chicagoans have heeded that warning.

They were mailing their ballots much earlier in the process and that we've seen are secure.

Drop box numbers really go up.

Post March 10th.

So I think Chicago got the message.

So if you're still a vote by mail voter and you have that ballot, you're planning on returning before 07:00PM at that drop boxes.

52 locations across the city now is the question.

Everybody wants to know how fast can people expect results tonight?

So we're going to see the initial results are coming in around 07:15PM.

Now it's important note these are unofficial results.

We still have a two-week counting period after Election Day were vote by mail.

Ballots are properly postmarked or revived a secure drop box that will be counted as probably tens of thousands of those.

So we asked for a little bit of patience some of these races are close to my come down to that to be counting period.

We will see results updated all night at Chicago elections not go Thank you, but thank you, Meghan, for taking the time.

Thank friend us.

We send it back to you.

All right, Joanne, untrue.

Be keeping an eye on it for us.

Thank you.

>> Up next, what to watch for in some key local races.

Plus, a look at how they play into the national political picture.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part by the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> Questions over how Illinois INS feel about the direction of the Democratic Party will start to emerge tonight as voters choose between moderate and progressive candidates in a number of congressional races and the race for U.S.

Senate and in this Blue City and state Republican voters are choosing their standard bearers as well.

Most prominently in races for the GOP nomination for governor and U.S.

Senate polls are set to close in just over an hour.

So joining us now to talk about what's at stake and what might happen tonight, our Wayne Staeger, a political science professor at DePaul University.

Connie Mixon, a political science professor at Elmhurst University and not university professors, our very own Nic Blumberg and Heather Sharon professors in their own right?

Thanks, everybody for joining us take what we can yourself professor, Kanye.

So a few states they have already had their primaries, most notably, Texas and North Carolina.

What results of those elections tell us about what we might see from voters today?

Well, I think nationally we're seeing a bit of an enthusiasm gap when it comes the Republican Party.

Democrats are outperforming expectations >> Red counties in red states and here in Illinois, we have an unprecedented open Senate seat, 5 open congressional seats and today is really the whole ball game because most of these are Democratic districts that Democratic state and so the winners of the primary today are the presumptive nominees going into November?

Wayne?

What are what are the Democrats chances of taking back the house in 2026?

mean, it's going to be hard I think this.

>> Typically midterm election president's party is going to lose you.

There's so many headwinds going against Republicans.

You've got a lot of retirements, more retirements on the Republican side than the Democratic side.

>> You know, the potential for inflation, the longer the around goes on, you've got interest rates high.

You've got turmoil, I mean, that there are so many things that Republicans are going to be fighting with that apply to the Senate as well.

Yeah, the Senate's a little harder.

The >> In part when we talk about the house, we have to realize that gerrymandering is going to play a bigger role this year.

There's been a lot of gerrymandered districts and potentially what it does is dramatically in it's relatively more in large states that a Republican controlled, it's potentially a high-risk strategy for Republicans because they're reducing their their mark potential margin of victory.

And if their turnout is low because of a lack of enthusiasm, Democrats could run up a massive national victory.

And when I say massive, you know, 38 40 45 and clearly take control of the House, whether that will happen.

You know, there's a lot to play out.

But in the Senate, at best case scenario, it's going to be very close.

>> A county following Kamala Harris has lost to Trump back in 2024, of course, there's a lot of discourse around Democrats among Democrats about which way the party should be going next.

What could the results of today's election signal about what Democratic voters want from their party ahead of the November midterms?

You know, I think we're seeing that the bite still within the Democratic Party between, you know, >> the more centrist Democrats and the further laughed, progressive Democrats.

I still think that's open question going into this primary.

But I think the most important takeaway is that we're seeing generational change with this election in Illinois.

You know, we've got Durbin, who is our U.S.

Senator Jan Schakowsky, Danny Davis, you know, in their 80's, they've been serving for 2030, years and we have an opportunity in this election, too, send younger and and potentially more progressive representatives to Washington.

Nick and Heather bring you both in because you're going to be reporting live tonight from the headquarters of candidates who are representing 2 different wings of the Democratic Party.

Really, Nick, you're going to be.

>> Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi is headquarters later today.

Tell us about the kind of Democrat the Christian worthy is and a little bit about his campaign.

That's right.

Certainly Krishnamoorthi is someone who's seen as much more of a centrist, much more of a moderate Democrat as compared to some of the other.

>> More progressive folks within the Democratic Party.

And he's really stressed that he has the ability to to reach out to a wide variety of voters.

You know, he was originally born in India, but moved is the young man to Illinois lived in Peoria for a long time, represents a swath of suburban districts with more centrist, moderate Democrat of voters.

You know, some some voters that probably were Republicans perhaps 10 years ago.

So he is someone who has really tried to emphasize that and he got out of the gate early, you know, very went into it with the very large campaign war chest is a prolific fundraiser, was out with ads early July of last year.

So, you know, he's really had a lot of name recognition out of the gate was an early favorite in the polls because of that name recognition.

Although things have gotten much tighter with Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, who is certainly to his left, making the race much more interesting in recent weeks, July of last year.

Have we really been doing a a?

>> Because Heather, you are going to be going to Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton headquarters.

Another one of the Democrats, of course, running for the Democratic Senate nomination.

Tell us about how she fits into the modern Democratic Party and her bid for the Senate.

Well, she hopes that Democratic voters will turn out because they want a fighter.

She is somebody who wants people to think if you want to send somebody to the Senate.

>> To fight Trump, to fight the Republican, she wants to be your candidate.

And I think the clearest you no distinction between the 2 candidates has representative Krishnamoorthi saying that he would abolish Trump's ice while Juliana Stratton wants to dismantle ice entirely and has left open the possibility of dismantling Department of Homeland Security in total.

99.9 percent of the votes either candidate casts if they're elected, will be the same.

So it's difference in approach.

But Julianna Stratton is hoping that the vibes, for lack of a better term are in favor of somebody who does not sort of emphasize reaching across the aisle the way that Representative Krishnamoorthi does or for that matter for Kelly, who's also running could also has touted her experience in Congress.

She's been there for 13 years.

She says I'm somebody who can get things done.

Does that is that what Democrats want?

We're going to find out a little bit more tonight.

Let's talk about Robin Kelly a little bit more because she is, you know, from the second district, second congressional district.

She's also one of the 3 frontrunners, but she's she's sort of the 3rd of the eastern front runners.

>> We talked a little bit about her candidacy.

Please.

>> Yeah, I mean, she represents a traditional urban constituency, focusing on education, social welfare programming on gun control is probably she's the strongest candidate 3 in terms of emphasizing that.

>> You know, it's hard when you you know, she's running behind and finance campaign finance being outspent by Rajon by about 10 to one and probably 3, maybe 4 to one by.

>> Stratton.

So, you know, he even she has a strong experience, record compared to the other tissues, relatively invisible be on the Chicago area.

What what do you see as the path to victory for these candidates?

You hard part about primaries is turnout.

And so we're really good at predicting who's going to vote for very good at predicting who's going to show up to vote in a given year.

We can look at individuals and demographics of people are more likely to vote.

But and county can tell you, you know, it's really variable from election to election.

And so the critical issue in the Democratic Party going to be more your traditional repeat Mitchell boaters, who tend to be a little older.

Are you going to see more progress of this turning out?

And that's really going to make a big difference across all of these races.

when I say progressives, it's not just young people.

Young people are just really tend not to vote in these primaries.

Progressive age doesn't discriminate or differentiate between whose progressive and whose liberal and Democratic Party is.

It actually has more to do with religiosity.

So people who are church understand to be the more traditional Democrat versus non church and tenders are definitely in the progressive >> County.

We've got also that several U.S.

house primaries being decided today, some with as many as 15 candidates running for that seat or running for that nomination.

Which races are you watching?

Are you what are you keeping an eye on?

You know, I'm watching all of them.

I think they're all really important.

It's hard to narrow down.

But, you know, certainly looking at the second to there's the possibility war representatives that previously had represent of those districts, actually, you know, returning to office yet.

Melissa Bean in the 8th Congressional district, you have Jesse Jackson junior in the second congressional district.

But when you have all of these candidates, you know, 8, 10, 13 candidates in these races, we're likely to end up with somebody winning with just a plurality of the vote, not a majority of the vote.

Yeah.

That's we're gonna end up all Heather.

Okay.

Want to get to see if we get to 2 other races really quickly.

Cook County where president race tell us, you know, what might that race be?

Tell us about like the.

>> The power different voting blocs within the county?

Well, we heard county say that there's generational change up.

Toni Preckwinkle Ish are hoping that she is the exception to the rule rather than that rule because she turns 79 today.

Happy from it.

But she is facing much younger challenger in Alderman Brendan Reilly.

He is also much more conservative than she is.

And he is hoping that after 4 terms in office, Cook County says we're ready for somebody different.

>> He is somebody who sort of slammed her for problems with the property tax system and says that there needs to be a new approach to criminal justice in Cook County.

It will be interesting to see sort of on a micro level what that means that race means for the Cook County Democratic Party and I will be looking to that race to sort of help me understand what we're facing in 2027 during the aldermanic and mayoral elections that are just over the Hill.

Brandis.

I know you cause there.

right?

All right, Nic, in this race, still, though, we've got the controller.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has probably back one of 4 candidates.

That's Margaret Crook.

>> What more could this race tell us about his influence in state Democratic politics?

It'll be really interesting to see whether his influence translates to direct endorsements and some of these marquee races.

Certainly.

>> He, you know, has a leader of the state are Democratic Party who helped install.

He's a major funder of the party and of campaigns here.

But, you know, having that the open controllers seat and having this open Senate seat where he endorsed his Lieutenant Governor Stratton, it'll be a test to see whether folks are following his lead in terms of who he wants to see take over.

Of course, outgoing Comptroller Susana Mendoza.

She has endorsed Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim Mendoza, a very popular statewide candidate.

Often one of the top vote getters if not the top vote getter in statewide elections.

So certainly someone with a long history of connecting with voters and a lot of sway.

First, there's also a Karina via state representative who's been very out front is a progressive anti-ice candidate, state state senators that should say via and state Representative Stephen Key for it.

So the interesting to see whether Pritzker's sort of hand-picked choices are following that the influence of his money and his leadership has his And those out going to be interesting if we see her in bed election that you mentioned you next year your own Nic lumber going Seager in kind of mix and things every day.

If you.

Up next, we'll check back in with Joanna Hernandez at the Board of Elections.

>> Cook County elections got an upgrade today in a partnership with no Ink County Clerk Monica Gordon unveiled a new real-time election analysis analytics platform platform is meant to optimize elections and increased trust.

Joanna was at the clerk at click Gordon's office where they showcase this technology joint explains how this platform works.

friend as well.

First of their very excited about it is called the election lens and basically it can analyze real-time voting.

And as you mentioned, brand is this is a partnership with the company called Knowing and it's a platform.

They say they've been working on for years.

a real time election analytics platform.

They say it is a first of its kind in the nation feeding data directly from polling pat into the platform.

They can see how many people are voting throughout the Cook County suburbs.

It's really interesting.

You can even track the areas with higher turnout versus those with lower turnout.

We did notice the suburb of Cicero is experiencing a very low turnout while Evanston and Oak Park have higher voting turnout.

As of now, it is tracking the gubernatorial primary with plans to expand it.

>> For other elections now, the Cook County clerk ensures no additional data beyond what is already collected will be used for the platform.

They say the goal is to optimize elections and increased trust.

>> What we've done here is we're looking to use this data to operational lines to make sure the voters have confidence to make sure that when our front desk, it's a phone call about a mail ballot.

They can answer the question real time without transferring the call and going to voicemail where we could be more efficient and voters have more confidence.

>> Now, this is still in beta with the goal of possibly also operating by the November elections.

Well, friends, they're calling this a game changer, reporting live outside inside the supercenter.

I'm joined at Memphis.

I send it back to you.

Joanna, thank you.

>> Up next, what actually happens to your ballot after you vote?

We explain.

you did your homework on the candidates, founder polling place where you may have waited in a long line.

But what happens to your ballot after you cast it as part of our series W T Tw News explains, we explore the journey of Chicago ballot.

Here's Amanda Finicky.

>> You've done your research.

Major choices.

Cast your ballot look a couple more on behalf of your dead relatives.

the Chicago way.

>> Just kidding.

So you earned your I voted sticker.

What happens next?

In Chicago when you feed your on the scene on Election Day, you're essentially putting it in a ballot box with 2 compartments ballots with write-in candidates.

Stay separate in one compartment, election judges will counties by hand at the end of the night, all other ballots are scanned and counted by machine from lucky for the judges of the place.

It would be a lot of counting once the polls close machine spit out a tape of the totals like a receipt election.

Judges work in bipartisan teams at each precincts to keep an eye on everything they certify things went smoothly and that pellets were compromised when they signed the receipt and other legally binding documents, then the use cellular device to transmit the totals downtown to election central.

>> That's when we begin to see the results.

But it's not all The paper ballots that into the machine don't get tossed.

They go into a big Hard shell suitcase on wheels packed up with a pretty bow or rather a security seal to ensure nobody messes with the precious cargo from then on anyone who touches the case has to sign a chain of custody him like evidence.

And one of TV procedural dramas.

Thousands of suitcases from every Chicago precinct to go to a warehouse where they stay signed, sealed, delivered for at least 22 months.

Just in case some will be open and review as an extra law.

A state audit recounts votes from 5% of all precincts procedures differ slightly for voting by mail early voting and those who vote from overseas.

But not by much.

All legitimate ballots are counted, kept secure at every turn and end up in the same warehouse for safekeeping.

So where that sticker with pride and peace of mind, if you >> You can watch more from our Emmy award-winning series W T Tw News explains on our website.

And that's our show for now.

Check out our very are check out our website for the very latest from W T Tw News including up to the minute election coverage and results and we will be back live tonight at 10:00PM with live coverage from some of the candidates election night parties and to break down today's results.

But for now, for all of us here at Chicago Brandis Friedman.

>> Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and see you later tonight at 10.

>> Closed caption News, cost.

>> Why Robert?

A cliff and Clifford law offices, Chicago, personal injury and wrongful death for.

>> That is a multi-lingual law