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Collar counties except McHenry weigh in for Clinton

As the scale tips back and forth between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the suburbs weighed in Tuesday with all but McHenry County favoring the first female contender for the presidency.

In Lake County, for example, preliminary results with all votes counted showed Clinton with 52.6 percent to Trump's 41 percent. That, despite Republican Sen. Mark Kirk leading his rival U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth by about 3 percentage points in Lake County even though he'd conceded to the Democrat earlier.

The split ticket voting is typical of a mindset of Republicans taking an independent tack on top ticket choices in Lake County, said former Democratic state Sen. Bill Morris of Grayslake.

"I think there is a rejection of Trump as well as a vote for Hillary," Morris said.

In DuPage County, Clinton was ahead with 53 percent compared to Trump with 39 percent, with 94 percent of precincts counted.

Kane County results showed Clinton with 47 percent and Trump with 44 percent with 98 percent of votes counted. In Will County, Clinton had 49.6 percent while Trump had 44 percent with all results in.

In suburban Cook County, Clinton had 65 percent of the vote compared to Trump's 30 percent with 87 percent counted.

Nationwide, "it's a dead heat ... I hope we don't have another 2000," said Elmhurst Republican organizer Mark Fratella, a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention this summer, referring to the close election between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush that remained undecided for weeks.

In McHenry County, Trump was showing a 47 percent slim lead to Clinton with 45.7 percent, unofficial results indicated.

McHenry County Democratic Party vice chairwoman Kristina Zahorik said she's surprised at what appears to be a relatively low turnout. "It's not clear to me what happened. Whether our people stayed home, whether their people stayed home, is there a rash of folks we don't know about?' she wondered.

DuPage County GOP Chairman Brian Krajewski said internal polling showed "a lot of blue-collar areas going for Trump," which might account for the Republican's surge elsewhere in the Midwest. Krajewski also thinks some voters "didn't want to tell the pollsters how they really were going to vote."

Earlier today at the Links and Tees Golf Facility in Addison, Republican Bob Cavallo said he thought Trump "has a chance I really do." But "I'm probably voting anti-Hillary rather than for him."

At Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights, Clinton voter Lauren Ruebenson said if she was elected, it would be "a big progressive moment for our history. It's a message we're more tolerant, we're more open."

Republican President George W. Bush captured the collar counties in 2004 but Democrat President Barack turned the suburbs blue in 2008 by a spread of 5 percentage points to 20 percentage points. Obama lost McHenry County in 2012 to Republican Mitt Romney but won a majority of votes in DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties.

The landscape shifted in 2014 when GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner clinched all five counties and in this year's primary Trump dominated.

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