The 1982 Illinois gubernatorial election was held in Illinois on November 2, 1982. Incumbent Republican governor James R. Thompson won a third term in office, defeating the Democratic nominee, former United States Senator Adlai Stevenson III, by a slim margin of 5,074 votes.

Background The election coincided with those for Congress and those for other state offices. The election was part of the 1982 Illinois elections.

Turnout in the primaries saw 22.42% in the gubernatorial primaries, with a total of 1,337,581 votes cast, and 20.25% in the lieutenant gubernatorial primary, with 1,208,178 votes cast.

Turnout during the general election was 61.58%, with 3,673,707 votes cast.

Democratic primary Governor Adlai Stevenson III, former United States Senator as well as the son of former Governor and 1952 and 1956 Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II and great-grandson of former Vice-President Adlai Stevenson I, won the primary for the gubernatorial nomination unopposed.

Lieutenant governor Grace Mary Stern won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor unopposed.

Republican primary Governor Incumbent James R. Thompson defeated challengers John E. Roche and V. A. Kelley.

Lieutenant governor George Ryan defeated Susan Catania and Donald L. Totten in the lieutenant gubernatorial primary.

General election results Stevenson complained that Thompson was trying to portray him as an ineffectual elitist by famously stating, "He is saying 'Me tough guy,' as if to imply that I'm some kind of wimp.""'Wimp' Factor Surfaces Again," The Associated Press (AP), Friday, September 27, 1985. Retrieved September 9, 2021 Before the election, Thompson had been favored by polls and predictions to win by roughly twenty percentage points.

The nominees of the third-party Libertarian and Taxpayers tickets were both right-of-center, and were therefore regarded as more likely to siphon off more potential supporters from Thompson than from Stevenson.

Statewide result Thompson won by a narrow 5,074 vote margin. Thompson carried 83 of Illinois' 102 counties, while Stevenson carried on 19. However, Stevenson won Cook County, home of Chicago. Cook County accounted for a substantial share of the state's population. Thompson had actually carried the vote of suburban Cook County. However, Stevenson had managed to win the city of Chicago by a margin of nearly 4 to 1. Thompson's narrow victory was likely attributable, in part, to his strong performance in the collar counties (the five counties that border Cook County; DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will).

The 1982 Democratic ticket performed better than the Democratic ticket had in the previous 1978 gubernatorial election. In the cumulative vote of Cook County and the five collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will), the 1982 Democratic Ticket performed 10% better than the 1978 ticket had. At the time, the downstate Illinois vote was seen as very important to determining victory in Illinois statewide elections. The 1982 Democratic ticket performed better than the 1978 had in downstate Illinois. However, despite the Republican ticket performing weaker in downstate Illinois than it had in the 1978 election, the Republican ticket still managed to win downstate Illinois by a 136,917 vote margin, which was a key factor in securing their victory.

Rate of voter participation 3,673,707 (61.58%) of the state's 5,965,514 registered voters voted in the gubernatorial election. This percentage of registered voters participating in the 1982 gubernatorial election marked a 7.35% increase from that of the preceding 1978 gubernatorial election.

183,311 of the 3,856,875 individuals that cast ballots in the state's 1982 general election did not vote in the gubernatorial race. This number of "blank votes" in the gubernatorial election was equal to 4.75% of the voters who participated in the state general election, and 3.07% of the state's registered voters. 2,108,639 (35.35%) of the state's registered voters did not cast valid ballots in the state's general election. The combined total of the registered voters who cast no valid ballot and the registered voters who cast ballots with "blank votes" in the gubernatorial election meant that 2,291,950 (38.42%) of the registered voters did not vote in the gubernatorial election.

Geographic breakdowns of the results Chicago vs. suburban Cook County vs. collar counties vs. downstate Illinois The following table breaks down the results into three categories, providing a comparative breakdown between the results in Chicago, the results in suburban Cook County, the results in the five collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will), and the results of the remainder of Illinois ("downstate Illinois").

+ Chicago vs. suburban Cook County vs. collar counties vs. downstate Illinois Region Thompson vote Stevenson vote Margin Notes Chicago 259,963 (26%) 728,580 (74%) 446,617 Stevenson Thompson carried 2 wards while Stevenson carried 48 Suburban Cook County 436,095 (61%) 279,000 (39%) 157,095 Thompson Thompson carried 28 townships while Stevenson carried 2 Collar counties 341,971 (68%) 162,292 (32%) 179,679 (34.97%) Thompson Thompson carried 5 counties, while Sevenson carried 0 Downstate Illinois (96 counties) 778,072 (54.15%) 641,115 (44.62%) 136,917 (9.53%) Thompson Thompson carried 78 counties while Stevenson carried 18

Cook County and collar counties vs. downstate Illinois The following table breaks down the results into two categories, providing a comparative breakdown between the cumulative results of Cook County and the five collar counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will) with the results of the remainder of Illinois ("downstate Illinois"). Thompson performed stronger in downstate Illinois than he did in the cumaltive vote of Cook County and the collar counties, while Stevenson inversely performed stronger in the cumulative vote of Cook County and the collar counties than he did in downstate Illinois.

As this table indicates, Cook County and the collar counties cumulatively were the location of 60.91% of the statewide vote, with downstate Illinois being the location of only 39.09% of the statewide vote.

+ Cook County and collar counties vs. downstate Illinois Region Thompson vote Stevenson vote Armstrong vote Roche vote Write-in vote Total vote % of overall state vote Margin Counties carried by candidate Cook County and collar counties 1,038,029 (46.39%) 1,169,872 (52.28%) 15,758 (0.70%) 14,036 (0.63%) 128 (0.00%) 2,237,823 60.91% 109,843 (4.91%) Stevenson Thompson: 5Stevenson: 1 Downstate Illinois (96 counties) 778,072 (54.19%) 641,115 (44.65%) 8,659 (0.60%) 7,965 (0.55%) 33 (0.00%) 1,435,884 39.09% 136,917 (9.54%) Thompson Thompson: 78Stevenson: 18

General geographic breakdown of Cook County and collar counties The following table gives a comparative breakdown of the results in the Chicago metropolitan area counties, breaking these results into three categories: the result within the municipal limits of Chicago, the results in the remainder of Cook County ("suburban Cook County"), and the cumulative results of the five collar counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will.

+ Geographic breakdown of results in Cook County and collar counties Region Thompson vote Stevenson vote Margin Notes Chicago 259,963 (26%) 728,580 (74%) 446,617 Stevenson Thompson carried 2 wards while Stevenson carried 48 Suburban Cook County 436,095 (61%) 279,000 (39%) 157,095 Thompson Thompson carried 28 townships while Stevenson carried 2 Collar counties 341,971 (68%) 162,292 (32%) 179,679 (34.97%) Thompson Thompson carried 5 counties, while Sevenson carried 0 Total 1,038,029 (46.41%) 1,169,872 (52.30%) 109,843 (4.91%) Stevenson

Chicago vs. suburban Cook County and the collar counties The following table gives a comparative breakdown of the results Chicago metropolitan area counties, contrasting the result within the municipal limits of Chicago with the outlying vote in the outlying area of its metropolitan area counties (Cook County and the five collar counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will).

Cook County and the five collar counties saw a cumulative total of 2,237,823 votes cast between them, equivalent to 60.89% of the statewide total.

This table demonstrates that, while Stevenson had carried the cumulative vote of Cook County and the collar counties, he had only done so due to his landslide performance (74%) in Chicago. The table demonstrates that Thompson won a landslide in cumulative vote of suburban Cook County and the collar counties (64%), performing even stronger there than his 55% performance in downstate Illinois.

+ Chicago vs. suburban Cook County and the collar counties Region Thompson vote Stevenson vote Margin Chicago 259,963 (26%) 728,580 (74%) 446,617 (45.18%) Stevenson Suburban Cook County and collar counties 778,066 (64%) 441,292 (36%) 336,774 (27.62%) Thompson Total 1,038,029 (46.41%) 1,169,872 (52.30%) 109,843 (4.91%) Stevenson

Geographic breakdown of collar counties The following table gives a comparative breakdown of the results in each of the five collar counties. The cumulative vote of the collar counties (513,825 votes) was equivalent to 13.99% of the statewide vote.

+ County breakdown of Collar County results County Thompson vote Stevenson vote Armstrong vote Roche vote Write-in vote Total vote % of overall state vote Thompson's margin over Stevenson DuPage 138,502 (71.44%) 51,543 (25.59%) 1,974 (1.02%) 1,824 (0.94%) 20 (0.01%) 193,863 5.28% 86,959 (44.86%) Kane 48,513 (67.36%) 22,132 (30.73%) 744 (1.03%) 612 (0.85%) 17 (0.02%) 72,018 1.96% 26,381 (36.63%) Lake 72,420 (62.93%) 40,757 (35.42%) 1,090 (0.95%) 803 (0.70%) 4 (0.00%) 115,074 3.13% 31,663 (27.52%) McHenry 29,343 (72.74%) 10,181 (25.24%) 442 (1.10%) 374 (0.93%) 2 (0.00%) 40,342 1.10% 19,162 (47.50%) Will 53,193 (57.49%) 37,679 (40.72%) 668 (0.72%) 983 (1.06%) 5 (0.00%) 92,528 2.52% 15,514 (15.77%) Total 341,971 (66.55%) 162,292 (31.59%) 4,918 (0.96%) 4,596 (0.89%) 48 (0.00%) 513,825 13.99% 179,679 (34.97%)

Geographic breakdown of Cook County The following table gives a comparative breakdown of the results in Cook County, contrasting the votes cast in the municipal limits of Chicago with the votes cast in the remainder of Cook County ("suburban Cook County").

Cook County saw a total of 1,723,998 votes cast, equivalent to 46.93% of all votes cast in the election.

This table demonstrates that, while Stevenson won a 58.48% of the vote in Cook County, with a margin of 18.07% over Thompson, this was solely attributable to Stevenson's 44.75% margin over Thompson in Chicago, as Thompson actually carried the remainder of Cook County by a 21.97% margin over Stevenson.

+ Breakdown of Cook County results Region Thompson vote Stevenson vote Margin Chicago 259,963 (26%) 728,580 (74%) 446,617 (44.75%) Stevenson Suburban Cook County 436,095 (61%) 279,000 (39%) 157,095 (21.97%) Thompson Total 696,058 (40.37%)) 1,007,580 (58.44%) 311,522 (18.07%) Stevenson

Geographic breakdown of Stevenson's vote 40.23% of Stevenson's votes came from Chicago. 15.41% of Stevenson's votes came from suburban Cook County. 8.96% of Stevenson's votes came from the collar counties. 35.40% of Stevenson's votes came from downstate Illinois.

Geographic breakdown of Thompson's vote 14.31% of Thompson's votes came from Chicago. 24.01% of Thompson's votes came from suburban Cook County. 18.83% of Thompson's votes came from the collar counties. 42.84% of Thompson's votes came from downstate Illinois.

Post-election day developments Certification of results The final canvass conducted by election officials was conducted on November 22, 1982. The Illinois State Board of Elections certified the result on January 23, 1982.

Partial recounts