Suburban Cook County sets early voting record

Early voting in suburban Cook County has set a record for local elections, the Cook County Clerk's office said Friday.

More than 44,000 early voters cast ballots through Friday afternoon, surpassing the previous consolidated election record of 40,693 early voting ballots cast in 2013, 15,353 ballots in 2011 and 5,951 ballots in 2015.

And during the first week of early voting March 20-26, turnout was up 37.7 percent compared with the first week of early voting in 2015, and up 36.6 percent over the first week in 2013, officials said.

As of Friday afternoon, some of the busy sites in the Northwest suburbs included the Des Plaines Public Library (1,320 voters), Trickster Art Gallery in Schaumburg (1,063), Palatine village hall (1,050) and Arlington Heights village hall (839).

Early voting continues through Monday in advance of Election Day on Tuesday. For all locations, visit cookcountyclerk.com/earlyvoting.