Suburban Cook County residents take advantage of early voting

Suburban Cook County voters have the option of voting at any Early Voting site in suburban Cook County or at the Clerk’s downtown Chicago office.
Suburban Cook County voters have the option of voting at any Early Voting site in suburban Cook County or at the Clerk’s downtown Chicago office.

Suburban Cook County residents take advantage of early voting

Early Voting for the November 6 Gubernatorial Election got off to what Cook County Clerk David Orr called, “a great start” in suburban Cook County Monday, October 22 with more than twice as many voters casting their ballots as did on the first day of Early Voting for the 2014 Gubernatorial Election.

A total of 17,361 suburban Cook County voters went to their Early Voting sites on Monday, October 22, a number that reinforces Orr’s observation that, “early voting, in all forms, gets more popular with each election.”

That number more than doubled the 8,298 on the first day of Early Voting in the 2014 Gubernatorial Election.

The most popular of suburban Cook County’s 53 Early Voting sites on Monday October 22 were: Orland Township, where 899 ballots were cast; Northbrook Village Hall, where 773 ballots were cast, and the Arlington Heights Village Hall, where 701 early voting ballots were cast.

October 22nd’s total not only exceeded the total for the first day of Early Voting for the 2014 Gubernatorial Election, it surpassed the combined number of early votes cast in the first two days of early Voting in 2014, 17,148. It was also busier than any day of Early Voting in 2014.

The record number of voters on the first day of Early Voting in any election was set in the 2016 Presidential Election, when 25,578 voters went to vote early. October 22nd’s total puts the first day of Early Voting in the 2018 Gubernatorial Election in second place, though.

Suburban Cook County voters have the option of voting at any Early Voting site in suburban Cook County or at the Clerk’s downtown Chicago office. They can take advantage of a new feature to make the Early Voting experience quicker and easier, the Early Voting Wait Time Viewer. Viewable either on desktop computers or mobile devices, the Wait Time Viewer on the clerk’s office website provides visitors to the page with an interactive map that will show the wait time – if any – at each of suburban Cook County’s Early Voting sites.

The site updates every 20 minutes. In-person early voting is not the only way that you can vote before Nov. 6. Approximately 91,000 suburban Cook County voters have applied for mail ballots. The deadline to apply for a mail ballot is Nov. 1. To apply online for a mail ballot go to cookcountyclerk.com/ VoteByMail.

The Clerk’s website also has a complete list of early voting locations and hours, with an early voting map and chart, and early voting totals from previous elections.

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