Cook County Clerk's Early Voting Info | Cook County Early Voting Locations
Board of Election Commissioners for the City of Chicago Early Voting Locations
Several major races are on the ballot- including U.S. senator, Illinois governor and Cook County board president. As soon as the polls opened up Monday morning, there were people casting their ballots--including some of the candidates who stopped by the Cook County Board of Elections.
"I think it's important to be civic minded. We have major issues that stand before us everyday especially in the city of Chicago," said Eric Kittrell, voted early.
"I'm going to be out of town and wanted definitely wanted to vote- especially for Cook County president," said Jordan Lotsoff, voted early.
But not everyone is rushing to the polls. Some voters say they haven't had time to research the candidates and decide who they want to vote for.
"It's a little bit early, and I don't think people have the knowledge of the candidates," said Jodi Mills-Cerny, not voting early.
"I'll have to go through my background check and see who they are, 'cause I haven't done that as of yet," said Corey Meyer, not voting early.
"The reason I introduced early voting back in 2005 was because we're one of the only countries in the world that votes on a workday, and so you need to give people opportunities because he want people work, right? But you also want to make it convenient for them to vote," David Orr, Cook County clerk. "We could have a blizzard. It's bad for training of judges. If we have a bad week of weather and thousands of judges don't show up for training, they're not trained."
Early voting has been increasingly popular in the 4-years it's been available, but political consultant don rose says it's the early primary that could determine how many people will use it.
"We have a campaign season of about 5 weeks. That's ridiculous," said Don Rose, political consultant. "How are citizens going to get the word on these people in this time?"
The 2010 primary includes all statewide races, including the governor and President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. Learn more about the candidates running for election in ABC7's Meet the Candidates forum.
Nearly a million people in Illinois cast a ballot at an early voting center in the 2008 election, according to the State Board of Elections.
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