Chicago officials said turnout in Illinois elections 2026 was strong by mid-day Tuesday, when more than 450,000 Chicagoans had cast ballots. The total came while Election Day polls were still open and before mail-in ballots finished moving through the count.
By 11:30 a.m., 129,784 people had voted in person in Chicago. With 211,657 in-person early votes and 109,215 mail-in ballots already returned by Monday night, the city had reached nearly one-third of its 1,565,133 registered voters.
Chicago Board of Elections counts
Chicagoans were voting for Chicago Board of Education president and board members, along with federal, state and legislative offices. Several referenda were also on the ballot.
The Chicago Board of Elections said early voting reached about 20 percent of registered voters in Chicago. In-person early voting rose about 24 percent from the 2022 Midterm General Election and more than doubled from the March 17 primary, giving the city a larger early vote total before Election Day itself.
State St voting sites
Any Chicagoan could vote at a local polling place, one of the 50 ward early voting locations or the downtown Voting Supersite at 137 S. State St. Early voting locations and the Downtown Voting Supersite operated as universal vote centers, which meant a voter could cast a ballot or return a mail-in ballot there.
Polls remained open until 7 p.m., and mail-in ballots would keep being counted over the next two weeks if postmarked by Nov. 3. A total of 242,230 mail-in ballots had been requested by Chicagoans, leaving room for the final tally to rise as those envelopes continued to arrive.
Mail-in ballots in Chicago
The headline number told only part of the story. More than 450,000 ballots reflected a strong Election Day in Chicago, but that figure was still moving because mail-in ballots had not finished coming in. The final count will depend on how many of the remaining requested ballots make it back in time to be included.
