By Peter JacksonThe Daily Northwestern
Can’t make it to the polls Tuesday? Vote tomorrow.
Thursday will be the last day of early balloting in Cook County for this year’s midterm elections. In Evanston, voting will take place at the Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., until 5 p.m. tomorrow. So far, the Civic Center has been the third busiest early polling location in suburban Cook County. Only the Northbrook and south suburban Orland Park locations have outpaced Evanston in early balloting, said Gail Siegel, communications director at the Cook County clerk’s office.
Evanston resident Steve Rosen filed into the city clerk’s office Tuesday afternoon to vote because he said he won’t have time Nov. 7. It was Rosen’s first time voting early.
“You hear about it everywhere,” he said. “It’s on the radio, Internet and (in the) papers.”
That exposure has paid off, officials said. By noon Tuesday, 20,941 suburban county residents had voted early, Siegel said.
The office staff expects that total to reach between 26,000 and 30,000 by the time polls close Thursday. Polls have been open since Oct. 16.
About 14,000 people voted early in the county’s suburban polls in March, Siegel said.
“We’re following the same trajectory as other places that have instituted early voting,” he said. “We expect it to grow with each coming election.”
A steady stream of voters visited the Civic Center Tuesday afternoon. Equipment manager Susie Reed helped people fill out forms and asked for state-issued IDs. Unlike Election Day balloting, early voting requires identification, but it doesn’t require an excuse like absentee voting.
Just after 1 p.m. Tuesday, about 110 people had voted since polling began at the Civic Center at 8:30 a.m. During a three-hour spell Saturday, 145 people cast ballots there, Reed said.
As the county clerk’s office adds more locations in the county in the future, voting officials said they expect early turnout to swell.
The Illinois legislature authorized early voting last year. It debuted March 21 in this year’s primary election and has expanded in this election to 32 suburban Cook County locations in addition to the 26 in Chicago.
Evanston residents may vote in any of the 32 suburban locations but not in Chicago.
Reach Peter Jackson at [email protected].
