Progress Illinois

At Manny's, the venerable delicatessen on Chicago's Near West Side, lunchgoers tucked into corned beef sandwiches and potato pancakes as a cluster of candidates on today's ballot shook hands and passed out literature.

Alexi Giannoulias, the Democrats' nominee for U.S. Senate, arrived first to work the restaurant just before the noon hour. It proved a friendly crowd. A man with an "I Voted" sticker on his green jacket jumped out of his seat to say hello to Giannoulias, telling the state treasurer he cast his ballot for him. Michael (he declined to give his last name) told Progress Illinois he lives in the 10th District, represented since 2001 by GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk. Michael said he was unimpressed with Kirk, criticizing him for his positions on the Bush tax cuts. Debra Owe, a University Park resident, greeted Giannoulias, listing a simple reason why she cast her ballot for him: "He's a Democrat." Other patrons posed for photos with the candidate between bites of food. Giannoulias said in the campaign's hectic final hours he's telling voters they have a "stark choice" between two competing visions, and a vote for Kirk will empower big corporations. Watch:

Also arriving at Manny's during the lunch hour was the Democratic candidate for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle; she and Giannoulias took some time to chat and visited a few tables together. Forrest Claypool, who's running for Cook County Assesor as an Independent, also passed through to distribute pamphlets. And Scott Lee Cohen even showed up around 1 p.m. to push his gubernatorial candidacy. 

For all the candidates, the ground game on Election Day is very basic -- saying hello, hitting meet and greets, shaking hands, and finding many people at once to make one last pitch. "At this point it's mostly large crowds -- retail politics," said Giannoulias spokesman Scott Burnham. The state treasurer's campaign, according to Burnham, will conclude the day at senior buildings and train stops. And hopefully with a little boost from the lunch crowd at Manny's.

While polls are giving GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mark Kirk a slight edge entering today's contests, most election watchers estimate that the races will be close. Turnout in Chicago's collar counties, particularly among women, could be the most significant factor in determining the outcomes. (Hopefully, Independent suburban females have learned about Brady's abhorrent stances on reproductive rights and stem cell research.)

Willard Helander, the Lake County Clerk, told PI this morning that the polls in her county were "not crazy, but busy." She said it was "extremely probable" that turnout would be "higher than 52 percent." One of the reasons: voter referendums, such as the historic effort to recall Buffalo Grove Trustee Lisa Stone. Over in Kane County, Clerk John Cunningham said he expected roughly 90,000 and 100,000 of the 213,000 eligible voters in his county to cast a ballot by day's end.

In the northwest suburbs and then again downtown, few voters were confident they could predict tonight's winners. Here's a short compilation we shot of several reactions:

Also keep an eye on Chicago's figures. If 50 percent of registered voters in the city participate today, the Democrats will have a real shot at winning the major statewide races tonight. 

An interview with a younger Latino voter outside of Yates Elementary School on Chicago's Northwest Side this morning illustrated one of the big issues motivating the Latino community to the polls this year: immigration reform, or the lack of it. Marchello Calixta, pictured at the right, said he wanted to cast a ballot today specifically for Congressman Luis Gutierrez (4th District), who has championed comprehensive immigration reform legislation on Capitol Hill, and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias, who Calixta hopes will help get an immigration reform bill passed in the Senate.

"They know what issues are big here in Illinois. One of them is immigration," he said about the state treasurer's campaign. Calixta, 30, is of Puerto Rican descent, meaning that his family is not ensnared by the legal limbo of having an undocumented status. But he still feels solidarity with immigrants who are. "They're still our brothers," he says. "We have to look out for them."

In Illinois, an estimated 10 percent of the registered electorate two years ago were "New American voters" -- immigrants or the children of immigrants. It's a big voting bloc that's looking for leadership on immigration reform in Washington, and that may drive up turnout here and in other races around the country. Recent polling data from the pollster Latino Decisions shows that the number of Latino voters (both immigrant and native born) enthusiastic about the midterms jumped in the last weeks of October. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, meanwhile, plans to mobilize more than 133,000 immigrants to the polls today, according to a press release.

Calixta, before he left Yates, also said he was motivated to vote today for another basic reason: to back Chicago's hometown president. "The big thing is Obama and supporting him," he said. That's something Democratic candidates up and down the ticket this Election Day are hoping will make a difference for them by the time the polls close this evening.

Gov. Pat Quinn has two messages he'd like voters to take with them to the polls today. The first, which he laid out to the AP yesterday, is that a vote for the incumbent means Illinois will not fall backwards. (This point was made with a little more gusto this spring by Planned Parenthood's Beth Kanter, who told us that the views of GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady are "antediluvian.") The second is that the Democrat is a fighter. Here's his closing ad, in which he says he will "go anywhere and do anything to bring jobs home." Watch it:

Our Bill Brady Reader, titled "Wrong For Illinois," is available here.