The most recent poll of voter opinion on the presidential race in Illinois, the Simon/SIU poll, taken just two weeks ago, show Hillary Clinton with a 25 point advantage over Donald Trump in her run for the presidency here. Barring some cataclysm, she will carry Illinois.
We do not elect presidents at large. We cast votes for electors and the electors cast their votes for president. In general and on the first ballot, electors vote for the candidate to which they were pledged. Not to do so is referred to as being a “faithless elector”. Such action is relatively rare. There has been one faithless elector to date in this century and five in the last.
The law in Illinois is that whichever candidate receives the greatest number of votes is awarded Illinois’s 20 electoral votes.
That means that if I vote for Hillary Clinton, she will carry Illinois and receive 20 electoral votes; if I vote for Donald Trump (something I cannot envision doing), Hillary Clinton will carry Illinois and receive 20 electoral votes; if I vote for either of the other two presidential candidates on Illinois’s ballots, Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, Hillary Clinton will carry Illinois and receive 20 electoral votes.
