Early voting ends Thursday
Thursday is the last chance to vote early for the Feb. 2 primary, an option taken up by tens of thousands across the suburbs although turnout is low, except for in Kane County.
Early voting locations are traditionally at local government offices.
So far, county clerks are reporting relatively low turnout for early voting. The numbers are largely falling in line with early voting in the last midterm primary, which was the first year such voting was allowed.
The exception is Kane County, where voters are allowed to cast their ballots at convenient places like grocery stores. Turnout in Kane County was already double 2006 earlier this week, from about 2,800 to more than 7,000, with thousands more likely to pile in for the final days.
Still, Kane County Clerk John Cunningham says he would like to see better numbers. "These primaries are extremely important," he said.
It has been a hard-fought primary campaign in many races, especially at the top of the ticket in the races for governor and U.S. Senate. Six Republicans are running for the state's top post and two Democrats are dueling. A seventh Republican, Bob Schillerstrom, dropped out of the race, but did so too late to have his name removed from the ballot.
In the final week of the campaign, TV and radio have been blanketed with ads for numerous races, from Congress to board races as well as governor and Senate.
Yet, even in DuPage County - home to three candidates for governor in the Republican primary and an aggressive contest for county board chairman - turnout has been "very quiet," according to the election commission director.
As of Tuesday, the county had 7,282 early voters. In 2006, 8,300 had cast ballots by the end of early voting.
DuPage County Election Commission Director Robert Saar said some voters may just be undecided and waiting until the last minute to vote.
The numbers of early voters for this primary is down significantly from the 2008 presidential race, which always draws more attention and ballots.
In Lake County, nearly 9,000 early votes had been cast as of earlier this week, about in line with 2006, when the primary was in March. Early votes in 2006 made up about 6 percent of all ballots. But in the 2008 general election, more than a third of all voters cast their ballots early.
Lake County has three heated congressional primaries.
The suburbs of Cook County hold the most votes outside of Chicago. Cook County Clerk David Orr reported 25,546 early votes as of Tuesday, up from 2006 by about 10,000. Twice as many early voters cast ballots in the 2008 presidential primary.
Some of the busiest sites are in northern Cook County, says spokeswoman Courtney Greve.
Decision 2010To find out where you can vote early and learn more about the primary election, contact your local election department:Cook Countywww.voterinfonet.com or (312) 603-0906DuPage Countywww.dupageelections.com or (630) 407-5600Kane Countywww.kanecountyelections.com or (630) 232-5990Lake Countywww.lakecountyil.gov/countyclerk or (847) 377-2408McHenry Countywww.co.mchenry.il.us or (815) 334-4242Will Countywww.willclrk.com or (815) 740-4615City of Aurorawww.aurora-il.org or (630) 897-4030