Early voting, mail voting setting new Cook County records

With four days still left in early voting, suburban Cook County already has greater participation in early voting, mail voting and grace period registration and voting than in 2010, Cook County Clerk David Orr said Thursday.

“Suburban Cook County voters are taking advantage of the three convenient ways to vote before Election Day, in numbers that surpass early balloting four years ago,” Orr said. “More than 115,000 suburban voters have voted during early voting, by mail or through grace period registration.”

The early voting turnout of 83,871 from 2010 was beaten Thursday by 10:15 a.m., in part because of the extended hours to 7 p.m. that began on Monday and continue Thursday night and Friday.

Most sites will be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 18 of the early voting sites will be open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Sunday. The busiest early voting sites are: Orland Township (5,380); Arlington Heights Village Hall (4,549) and Northbrook Village Hall (3,940).

Real-time early voting turnout and a pdf of turnout by location are available at cookcountyclerk.com.

Meanwhile, mail voting is on track to set a record. By Wednesday, about 62,000 mail ballot applications had been requested, and more than 29,000 had been returned. The record for mail ballots cast is 36,754, set in 2012.

Orr said his initiative to expand grace period registration and voting to all 43 early voting sites in suburban Cook County has proved to be popular. By the end of Wednesday, 2,431 voters had registered or updated their registration and then immediately cast a ballot. Four years ago, 1,582 voters participated in grace period registration and voting.