Politics

CHICAGO (CBS) ― It appears that records will be broken for the first day of early voting in Cook County. Close to 20,000 ballots were cast in the general election in just the first five hours Monday.

 CBS 2/Newsradio 780 Voter Guide

Election officials said a record 11,748 Chicagoans voted, with some people still in line Monday evening, and another record 7,689 early ballots were cast in suburban Cook County. Nearly four times as many voters -- 2,532 of them -- turned out in northern Illinois' Lake County as had on the first day of early voting for the 2008 primary.

Other parts of the state saw an uptick too.

In Peoria County, the clerk's office estimated there were at least 450 to 500 early voters Monday compared to just a handful who showed up the first day to cast early primary ballots, said county spokeswoman Jennifer Zinkel.

In Macon County, Clerk Stephen Bean is expecting an onslaught of voters Tuesday when early voting starts in that central Illinois county.

Bean said he put off early voting there by a day because his workers needed Monday to sort through the "crazy" flood of new voter registrations.

"We were so swamped with voter registration numbers that I had to give my staff an extra day to process them," he said from his Decatur office. "That's part of the reason we buckled down today to get everything processed because we know the onslaught of early voters" is coming.

But gauging a complete picture of early voting across the state proved tricky Monday; calls to clerks in about a dozen central and southern Illinois counties went unanswered, suggesting they were closed for Columbus Day. The state Board of Elections was closed for the holiday too. 

As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, many people who have the day off on Columbus Day were voting in Cook County and many of the collar counties. That is among the reason election officials pushed for early voting.

At Access Living, 115 W. Chicago Ave., voters were streaming in throughout the morning in a volume much higher than expected. They said they don't want to have to worry about work schedules, crowds and weather on Nov. 4.

June and Herman Andalcio, both of whom work at a Chicago Public School, came to vote on their day off.

"I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to take a day off a day off from the Chicago Public Schools and to go with my husband, and it was convenient," June Andalcio said.

"As a citizen of the United States – I came from Trinidad – I think it's a privilege; it's an honor to be a United States citizen, and I think, in my view, every citizen should come out and vote," added Herman Andalcio.

Hundreds of Cook County voters visited the polls within the first hour of early voting. It was the first time early voting has been available for a presidential election, and also the first time technology made it easier for disabled voters.

From now until Oct. 30, people may vote outside their precinct.

"On Election Day, you must go to your polling place, so you have to adjust your schedule around your voting activity," said Chicago Board of Elections Chairman Langdon Neal. "So the great thing about early voting is that you can make voting fit into your schedule."

"I already had my mind made up, and this was easy, and I can go ahead and get it over with," said Ella Foster.

Chicago and Cook County officials registered a record number of new voters for the election, and anticipate that 20 percent of them will turn out early.

Oak Park resident Eric Davis was among the earliest. He lined up at 7:30 a.m. to be the first early voter in suburban Cook County to cast his ballot. "I got here early because I really wanted to be the first to vote," he said.

The early voting period runs through Oct. 30. Unlike with absentee voting, early voting does not require a reason or excuse for casting your ballot ahead of time.

But once you vote, you may not come back to change your ballot.

All that is required is a form which voters may fill out at the early voting site. You must also bring a driver's license or other government-issued photo ID to any one of 51 sites in the city of Chicago and 44 sites in the Cook County suburbs. The sites are open Monday through Saturday in Cook County and most of the collar counties.

If you live in Chicago or suburban Cook County, you may also vote on Sunday from 9 a.m. until noon at the George W. Dunne Cook County Office Building, at 69 W. Washington St.

In Will and McHenry counties, early voting does not begin until Tuesday, because of the Columbus Day holiday.

For a list of early voting locations in your area, click on one of the links below.

 City Of Chicago
 Suburban Cook County
 Lake County
 McHenry County
 DuPage County
 Kane County
 Will County

CBS 2's Joanie Lum, the Associated Press and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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