Early voting turnout has nearly doubled from four years ago, largely due to the expansion of voting by mail, the DuPage County Clerk’s Office said.
With countywide early voting starting Monday and mail-in voting under way, 49,177 out of 615,626 registered county voters had already cast ballots as of Wednesday, the release said. That adds up to 8% turnout so far.
By comparison, 27,915 voters out of the 639,752 registered had cast ballots by the same day — about 4.4%, the release said. Total voter turnout in 2018 was nearly 58% by Election Day, nearly 10% higher than 2014 turnout, which was 49%.
County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek said the expansion of mail-in voting has made a significant difference — 82,060 voters have requested vote-by-mail ballots for the Nov. 8 election.
So fa, 12,370 voters have voted early in-person and 36,807 vote-by-mail ballots have been returned.
At the same point in 2018, 15,986 voters had voted early in-person and 11,929 vote-by-mail ballots had been returned.
Voters who have applied for a mail ballot are urged to complete it and return it via mail or drop box as soon as possible, Kaczmarek said.
After this week, voters should consider voting in-person at one of the 22 early voting locations or at any of the 269 polling locations open countywide on Election Day.
For more information on early voting and early voting locations, go to www.dupagecounty.gov/earlyvoting.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
