Lake County's early voting nearly doubled from 2006

The number of Lake County residents who voted early for Tuesday's election nearly doubled from the last midterm election in 2006, county statistics show.

When in-person early voting officially ended Thursday afternoon, 34,874 ballots had been cast here, county clerk Willard Helander said. That's about 8.6 percent of the people registered to vote in Lake County.

Four years ago, the total was 18,437. That was about 5 percent of the people registered to vote in Lake County at the time.

Helander was surprised by the jump.

“That's pretty impressive,” she said.

Publicity about early voting and voting-by-mail options likely contributed to the increase, Helander said.

This election season, local voters received notices from several political groups urging them to vote early through the mail, Helander said. Rather than voting that way, many voted early at any of 20 in-person locations because they trusted the method more, she said.

Such people likely wanted to get voting “out of the way,” Helander said.

Early voting began in Illinois in the March 2006 primary. For that election, 5,006 people voted early. It's gone up and down since then.

In Lake County and other counties, early voting saw the most interest ahead of the November 2008 presidential election. According to Helander's records, 83,828 people voted early then.

This election's figure is second only to the November 2008 total, according to the clerk's figures.

This year is the first Illinois has allowed no-excuse absentee voting by mail. Absentee ballots may also be filled out in person at Lake County's early voting locations through Monday, Helander said.

In-person absentee voting sites will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Satuday and from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday. To find a site, go to lakevoterpower.info.

Traditional Election Day polling places will be open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.