Ready to vote? You can do it starting today

With a little more than two weeks until the April 7 local election, suburban voters can start casting their ballots in person today when Illinois' early voting period begins.

Registered Illinois voters can cast their early ballot through April 4 at locations across the suburbs. Early votes will be tallied after the polls close April 7.

Early voters are required to show a valid identification card, which can include a driver's license, state-issued ID card or any other government-issued card that includes a photograph.

"Early voting has proved to be very popular because people want to get it out of the way, especially the more committed voters," said Cook County Clerk David Orr.

Early voting locations can be found on the Illinois Board of Elections website at www.elections.il.gov/VotingInformation/EarlyVotingLocations.aspx. They include places like city halls, municipal centers and even shopping malls, but not usually your regular Election Day polling place.

Efforts by Illinois Democrats to expand the early voting period have been made permanent but don't take effect until 2016.

Find out more about local races, including questionnaires filled out by the candidates, at www.dailyherald.com/news/politics/election/.

While one goal of early voting is to give people more chances to vote, total turnout hasn't risen much.

In DuPage County, for instance, about 19 percent of registered voters participated in the 2013 local election, and the county has not seen a local election turnout over 25 percent since 1995. The 2013 local election in Cook County drew 18.9 percent of registered voters.

That's far less than presidential years that feature big draws at the top of the ticket. For example, the 2012 presidential election drew 71.9 percent of registered voters to the polls in DuPage County, and the numbers are normally in the 70 percent range in suburban Cook, too.

Low voter turnout usually stems from uncontested races, Orr says. More than 63 percent of the 699 races in suburban Cook County are uncontested this year, he said.

April 7 ballots include everything from mayoral races to school board and village trustee contests and campaigns for spots on community college boards.

Illinois voters also can vote by mail if they would rather fill out their ballots from home. To find out how to request a ballot, see www.elections.il.gov/votinginformation/AbsenteeVotingJurisdiction.aspx

As with early voting, no excuse is necessary to cast a ballot by mail.

Those who aren't registered but want to vote can do so through April 4 via so-called grace period voting. The state requires that anyone registering during the grace period must do so in person at a designated location and must vote at the same time. For locations, check the website of your county clerk or board of elections.