Paul Simon won with 50.1% of the vote (2,397,165 votes), ahead of Charles H. Percy with 48.2% (2,308,039 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 1.9 percentage points (89,126 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Democratic lead of 1.9 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 11.7 points toward Republicans.
4,787,335 votes were counted in this race, for 6 candidates or options.
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