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Since 2015, early voting in Illinois has traditionally started
40 days prior to election day in Illinois.
Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich said
at the start of the early voting season, voters will likely have
to vote at their county clerk’s office.
"A couple of weeks into the process or a few weeks ahead of
election day, you will see a pretty substantial expansion of
early voting locations in some of our larger counties,” said
Dietrich.
The increase in early voting locations typically correlates with
the number of early votes cast. Dietrich said that the closer
election day is, the more early votes are cast and more
locations will open.
“In that period, the initial 40-days up until two weeks or even
one week before election day, it’s a little slower. People
aren’t necessarily rushing out on Sept. 26 to cast their vote.
Some are, but generally we see most of the early voting being
done in the last couple of weeks prior to election day,” said
Dietrich.
In a lot of Illinois counties, the early voting process will
remain in the clerk’s office, but some counties will open up
other locations and where those early voting locations wind up
is at the discretion of the local election authority.
Dietrich said the state board of elections isn’t concerned about
staffing or security at multiple early voting locations.
In October 2022, a Bloomington mall, also an early voting
location, was broken into and vandalized. According to reports
at the time, McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael said there was no
damage and nothing was stolen at the voting site. Dietrich
called that incident an “outlier.”
"We haven’t had reports of security problems with the
jurisdictions that have locations other than their central
office,” said Dietrich.
Early voting locations are just like a regular polling place,
according to Dietrich. There are election judges, people
checking voters in and handing them their ballot.
"Election judges are there to assist you if you have any issues
or if you make a stray mark on your ballot and the tabulator
won’t take it. You’ll be able to get assistance from an election
judge,” said Dietrich. “Generally what you’ll find is you’ll go
into the clerk’s office and they’ll have an early voting
location set up in a designated area of their office.”
On the Illinois State Board of Elections’ website, voters can
look up early voting times and early voting locations in their
jurisdiction. |
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