Posted by Monique Garcia at 6 a.m.
Early voting for the Feb. 2 primary ends Thursday, and while turnout has been relatively low this year, election officials still expect a last-minute rush of people trying to beat the deadline.
In Chicago, only about 27,000 of the city’s 1.5 million registered voters have cast an early ballot since that option became available Jan. 11. That’s a dramatic drop from 2008, when hometown pride for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spurred 81,000 city voters to the polls before the primary.
Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, said early voting is catching on. He pointed to 2006, the first year for early voting, when only 14,000 people took advantage of the new perk.
In suburban Cook County almost 22,000 voters have cast early ballots out of the 1.4 million registered voters, said Courtney Greve, spokeswoman for Clerk David Orr. That’s up from the 15,000 early primary voters in 2006, but down from the 51,000 early voters in the Obama-driven 2008 election.
Voters do not need to provide a reason for why they chose to vote early, but must bring a government-issued photo ID in order to cast a ballot.
For information on where you can vote early, visit chicagoelections.com if you live in the city or cookcountyclerk.com if you live in the suburbs.