State

What you need to know on Election Day in Illinois

Hector Hernandez of Andersonville looks over the ballot Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at the Ebenezer Lutheran Church in the 1600 block of West Foster Avenue in Chicago, Ill. (Anthony Souffle/Chicago Tribune/TNS)

By Chicago Tribune
November 8, 2016

Here’s (some) of what you need to know about Election Day in Illinois.

— Polls are open statewide from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you’re still in line at 7 p.m., you’ll still be allowed to vote.

— If you spot problems on Election Day (suspected improper or illegal activity), you can call the Illinois attorney general’s office. In the Chicago area and northern Illinois, the number is 866-536-3496, and in central and southern Illinois, it’s 866-559-6812.

— If you’re voting by mail, make sure the ballot is postmarked by today.

— You can still register to vote on Election Day, but election officials warn that you should be prepared to show two forms of identification (driver’s license, utility bill), one of which must show your current address. In larger counties, you’ve got to register and vote at your home precinct only.

— A record number of people already have voted, mostly due to the expanded time period for casting a ballot ahead of time. Cook County Clerk David Orr said 26 percent of the county’s 1.5 million registered suburban voters voted early.

— Other voting tidbits, early and otherwise: This time in suburban Cook, 438,212 voted early, besting the 273,661 record set in 2012. In addition, 113,375 vote-by-mail ballots were requested and 69,270 have been returned so far. Nearly 58 percent of the early voters have been women. In Chicago, more than 323,501 people voting early, well ahead of the 2008 record of 260,378. There are more than eight million registered voters in Illinois.

— The first thing you’ll see on the ballot is not the race for president. It’s a very long referendum question on whether you think gas tax money should only be allowed to be spent on transportation-related stuff.

— The top Illinois race is the U.S. Senate contest between Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and Democratic challenger Rep. Tammy Duckworth.

— There’s a special election for Illinois comptroller. Appointed Republican Leslie Geissler Munger is running against Democratic Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza. The office controls state government’s checkbook.

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