Elections were held in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

on Tuesday, November 5, 1946.

Primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

were held April 9, 1946.

Election information

1946 was a

midterm election Apart from general elections and by-elections, midterm election refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the term ...

year in the United States.

Turnout

In the primary election 1,531,657 ballots were cast (741,821 Democratic and 789,836 Republican). In the general election 3,619,332 ballots were cast.

Federal elections

United States House

All 26 Illinois seats in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

were up for election in 1946. Republicans flipped five Republican-held seats, leaving the Illinois House delegation to consist of 20 Republicans and 6 Democrats.

State elections

Treasurer

Incumbent first-term

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

, Republican Conrad F. Becker, did not seek reelection. Republican

Richard Yates Rowe Richard Yates Rowe (December 12, 1888 – March 19, 1973) was an American politician and businessman. Biography Born in Jacksonville, Illinois, Rowe served in the United States Navy during World War I. He received his bachelor's degree from U ...

was elected to succeed him.

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Incumbent

Superintendent of Public Instruction A state education agency or state department of education is the state-level government organization within each U.S. state or territory responsible for education, including providing information, resources, and technical assistance on educationa ...

Vernon L. Nickell, a Republican, was reelected to a second term.

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

State Senate

Seats in the

Illinois Senate The Illinois Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state, State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adop ...

were up for election in 1946. Republicans retained control of the chamber.

State House of Representatives

Seats in the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

were up for election in 1946. Republicans retained control of the chamber.

Trustees of University of Illinois

An election was held for three of nine seats for Trustees of

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

. Republicans won all three seats. However, since all three seats up for election were already held by Republicans, this did not change the partisan composition of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, with the board's 9–3 Republican majority over Democrats being retained. First-term Republican incumbents Park Livingston and John R. Fornof were reelected. New Republican member Doris Simpson Holt was elected. Third-term Republican incumbent Helen M. L. Grigsby was not renominated.

Judicial elections

On June 3, 1946, elections were held to fill vacancies on the

Superior Court of Cook County The Superior Court of Cook County was a court in Cook County, Illinois. It was preceded by earlier courts. 1845 saw the creation of the County Court of Cook County. In 1849, this was renamed The Cook County Court of Common Pleas. In 1859, this was ...

. On November 5, 1946, a special election was held to fill a vacancy on the Circuit Court of Cook County. On December 17, 1946, a special election was held to fill a vacancy on the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

Ballot measures

Two measures was put before voters in 1946.

Illinois Gateway Amendment

The Illinois Gateway Amendment, a proposed amendment to Section 2 of Article XIV of the Constitution, failed to meet the threshold for approval. If approved, this amendment would have enabled the legislature to submit legislatively referred amendments to up to three constitutional articles per session. In order to be approved, legislatively referred constitutional amendments required approval equal to a majority of voters voting in the entire general election.Illinois Constitution of 1870 ARTICLE XIV Section 2

World War II Veterans' Compensation Act

The World War II Veterans' Compensation Act, a legislatively referred

bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemical ...

issue, was approved by voters. The bond issue would be used to compensate veterans of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It was required to be approved by a vote equal to vote for whichever chamber of the state legislature received the greatest vote total. In this case, that meant it needed to receive 1,709,721 votes.

Local elections

Local elections were held. These included county elections, such as the Cook County elections.

References

{{Illinois elections