Pre-Election Vote Totals 'Shatter Record' In Suburban Cook County

COOK COUNTY, IL — Pre-Election Day voting has smashed records in the Cook County suburbs, according to Clerk David Orr. Both in-person and by mail, more voters are participating in the 2018 midterm and gubernatorial election early than previous years.

"The ever-growing popularity of pre-Election Day Voting, combined with some hot races throughout the ballot have shattered previous records for Gubernatorial Elections,” Orr said in a release.

According to unofficial results, early voting participation was up 86.4 percent, mail voting was up more than 40 percent, the total number of pre-election ballots cast was 20 percent higher and the number of registered voters participating in the midterm and gubernatorial election was up 13.5 percent.

Top five suburban Cook County early voting locations:

1. Evanston Civic Center — 11,466
2. Orland Township — 10,833
3. Arlington Heights Village Hall — 10,657
4. Northbrook Village Hall — 9,782
5. Schaumburg, Trickster Art Gallery — 9,022

There were 52 early voting sites available for Cook County voters in 2018. The clerk's office announced there were 238,425 ballots cast in early voting through Sunday, compared to 128,011 in the 2014 election.

Pre-election voting has been on the rise in the past two midterm elections. Even as turnout dipped from 52.5 percent to 49.8 percent in 2014 , the percentage of votes cast early or by mail rose from 15.4 percent to 26.7 percent, according to the clerk's office.

According to Orr, 72 percent of early voters have been over the age of 50 and more than half have been older than 60. Women have made up about 55 percent of all early voters in suburban Cook County.

As of 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, more than 753,000 ballots had been cast in suburban Cook County, the highest amount since 1990, Orr said.

#ElectionDay Update

As of 4:30pm, suburban #CookCounty voters have cast 753,000 ballots – surpassing the ballots cast in every Gubernatorial Election in the past 28 years! #twill

'90 – 654,674
'94 – 632,598
'98 – 680,917
'02 – 697,872
'06 – 680,696
'10 – 719,090
'14 – 696,403 pic.twitter.com/SGecuih5we
— David Orr (@cookcountyclerk) November 6, 2018

Pre-election voting was also up sharply within the city of Chicago. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners reported early voting totals were up 96 percent compared to 2014.

Same-day registration remains open until polls close at 7 p.m. In order to register and vote at once on Election Day, voters must be U.S. citizens, 18 years of age as of Sunday and have lived in their voting precinct for at least 30 days. (Find your official polling place.) Voters must bring two forms of ID, and one must include a current address. No photo identification is required.

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