1982 Illinois elections


Elections were held in Illinois on Tuesday, November 2, 1982.
Primaries were held on March 16.

Election information

1982 was a midterm election year in the United States.
Amid the ongoing recession and resultant unpopularity of incumbent Republican president Ronald Reagan, Democrats made significant gains in the national elections for the United States House of Representatives and in the gubernatorial elections. In Illinois, Democrats made gains in the House of Representatives elections. Democrats also managed to flip control of the office of Illinois Attorney General. While the election was incredibly close, Republican James R. Thompson managed to retain his governorship.

Turnout

Turnout in the primary election was 27.38%, with a total of 1,622,410 ballots cast. 949,426 Democratic and 672,984 Republican primary ballots were cast.
Turnout during the general election was 64.65%, with 3,856,875 ballots cast.

Allegations of fraud

In November 1982, twenty-six people, a majority of them election officials, were indicted for election fraud in federal court by US Attorney Dan K. Webb.
The gubernatorial election result has been questioned. Some Democrats have alleged that fraud might have committed by Republicans in areas outside Chicago to secure Thompson his victory. In 2016, Rudy Giuliani suggested that the gubernatorial results had been fraudulent on the part of Chicago Democrats.

Federal elections

United States House

Illinois had lost two congressional districts in reapportionment following the 1980 United States Census. All 22 of Illinois' remaining seats in the United States House of Representatives were up for election in 1982
Before the election, there were 14 Republican and 10 Democratic seats. In 1982, 12 Democrats and 9 Republicans were elected from Illinois.

State elections

Governor and Lieutenant Governor

Incumbent Governor James R. Thompson, a Republican, narrowly won reelection to a third term, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson III by merely 5,074 votes.George Ryan joined Thompson on the Republican ticket, and won a first term as Lieutenant Governor.
The election was surprisingly close, as, before the election, Thompson had been favored by polls and predictions to win by roughly twenty percentage points.

Attorney General

Incumbent Attorney General Tyrone C. Fahner, a Republican appointed in 1980, lost reelection to Democrat Neil Hartigan.

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

Secretary of State

Incumbent Secretary of State Jim Edgar, a Republican first appointed in 1981, was elected to a full term.

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

Comptroller

Incumbent Comptroller Roland Burris, a Democrat, won reelection to a second term.

Democratic primary

Incumbent Roland Burris won renomination unopposed.

Republican primary

Former State Representative Calvin Skinner won the Republican primary unopposed.

General election

Treasurer

Incumbent Treasurer Jerome Cosentino, a Democrat, did not run for a second term, instead opting to run for Secretary of State. Democrat James Donnewald was elected to succeed him in office.

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

State Senate

As this was the first election after a redistricting, all of the seats of the Illinois Senate were up for election in 1982. Democrats retained control of the chamber.

State House of Representatives

All of the seats in the Illinois House of Representatives were up for election in 1982. Democrats flipped control of the chamber.

Trustees of University of Illinois

An at-large election was held for three of nine seats for Trustees of University of Illinois system.
The election saw the reelection incumbents
William D. Forsyth Jr. and George W. Howard, III and the election of new trustee Albert N. Logan Jr.
Incumbent second-term Democrat Earl L. Langdon was not renominated.

Judicial elections

Multiple judicial positions were up for election in 1982.

Ballot measures

Illinois voters voted on a single ballot measure in 1982. In order to be approved, the measures required either 60% support among those specifically voting on the amendment or 50% support among all ballots cast in the elections.

Bail Amendment

Voters approved the Bail Amendment, a legislatively referred constitutional amendment which amended Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution of Illinois to expanded the population that could be denied bail to include those who committed an offense that could result in a life imprisonment sentence.

Local elections

Local elections were held.