McLean County Times

Illinois has reports of over 1.8 million in-person early votes as being cast and over 1.75 million mail ballots have been returned as of the day before Election Day.

Elect Project reported those numbers on Nov. 2. Still, other voters are taking the traditional approach and waiting until Tuesday to cast their ballots.

One voter in McLean County, Margaret Marcus of Normal, said she will be voting on Election Day because the presidential race is extremely important for numerous reasons.

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"It's very important...there's like a million reasons," Marcus told the McLean County Times. "...but mostly because I think we've become unglued from our foundation on a lot of reasons, like it would appear pretty solid corruption charges against (former Vice President Joe) Biden and no one cares about it. And the swamp being out of control and I just don't see them fixing themselves or even inquiring …there's zero interest in them inquiring about these things. If [President Donald] Trump goes, we're back to the way it was."

For her, the ballot question asking Illinois voters to approve a progressive tax is extremely important. 

"The story is we're only going to tax people who earn over $400,000...and historically Illinois politicians have lied about all of those issues, so there's no reason to believe them at this point," Marcus said.

She personally thinks those who make more should not have to pay more in taxes.

"I personally think there's something wrong to punish people who make more money, it' morally wrong to me," she added. "Of course, Illinois has no intention of fixing their own spending issues, much like the federal government,"

Marcus said she believes it's important to vote in every election. However, Marcus said this one is even more critical.

"This election is different because we have people who are actually committed to things like socialism and communism and they are gaining ground in our country," said Marcus. "It really does shock me how ignorant Americans are about America and why it is so important to stay the course."

For Marcus, the issues most important to determine a candidate to vote for, are "people who just believe individuals make better choices for themselves than the government."

In her eyes, Trump is different.

"Trump actually has done what he said he's going to do," said Marcus. "I've known a lot of politicians who made promises and never even tried to fulfill any of them. Trump is pretty unusual in that regard in that he has actually done what he said he's going to do. He's not a politician and he doesn't follow the mold, which has actually been successful for him, certainly in the Middle East, he's been successful."

Marcus said it's so important to vote and she knows people who don't vote and she said she tries to remind them, "The government we have is the government we choose."