Illinois early vote tops 1 million
(The Center Square) – Illinois saw 1.16 million early ballots cast as of Wednesday, roughly on par with the previous midterm election’s early vote turnout.
One political science professor says early voting may not be an important indicator for the state’s voters this year.
Ballots cast before election day come from two sources, mail-in voting and early in-person voting. As of Wednesday, the total number of in-person votes was about 608,000, while mail ballots returned totaled about 556,000 – less than half of all requested mail-in ballots.
In the 2024 presidential election, voters submitted 2.39 million ballots before election day, according to the State Board of Elections.
In the 2022 midterm election, Illinois voters cast 1.38 million ballots early, meaning the state has reached 84% of the 2022 early turnout. Early voting has been open since Sept. 24, only 87% of the full early voting period.
Elmhurst College political science professor Connie Mixon told The Center Square that early vote numbers won’t provide much insight into overall voter turnout this year.
“Higher turnout would probably be a good sign for Democrats,” Mixon said. “I would suspect in terms of turnout for Illinois to probably be on par for what we normally have been in midterm elections.”
Compared to other states across the county with more heated races, like Michigan or Texas, Mixon said Illinois’ turnout could be lower or average due to the state’s heavy Democratic party leaning.
“In Illinois, yes, we do have an open Senate seat technically. But since Illinois leans so Democratic, there hasn’t been as much of a sense of urgency about that race. It’s sort of already assumed that Democrats are going to win,” Mixon said.
Illinois’ early vote totals somewhat resembles Pennsylvania’s, which has recorded about 933,000 early votes total and also lags slightly from 2022, with few highly contentious races with national implications.
Mixon said what she’s watching for from the results of the election this year isn’t necessarily a Democratic sweep, though she thinks it is very likely. Instead, she thinks the election this year is about how much the state’s Congressional delegation is going to change.
“We have five open congressional seats and this is really generational change, right? We’re losing a lot of members of Congress who’ve been there for a long time. Dick Durbin who’s been there for a long time,” Mixon said. “We’re switching to a new generation in the Democratic delegation to Congress. So they will not have as much power as the more senior leaders did, but we’ll see what they’re able to build over time.”
Voters have through Election Eay to vote in-person at their local polling location, which can be found online via the state’s lookup tool.
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