Illinois Republican leaders are trying to show a united front, and to build a bridge between two islands: that of party mainstays and Donald Trump-invigorated newcomers.

Donald Trump said on Twitter Friday morning that he has picked Mike Pence as his running mate, and an aide formally withdrew the Indiana governor as a candidate for re-election to his current office.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came to Springfield Wednesday to deliver a campaign speech about America’s racial divides. The former secretary of state also accused her presumptive Republican opponent of trying to incite further division.

Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten says interest in both presidential primaries contributed to the roughly 60,000 votes cast, but he says others, particularly University of Illinois students, were drawn to the polls because of a new same-day voter registration law.  He says at one campus polling site, about 200 were still in line as the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten suspects interest in the presidential primaries - and not the expansion in voting sites, is driving voter interest for the Illinois primary Tuesday.  He expects close to 9,000 ballots to be cast before Tuesday, in 2012, that total was 3,600.