Cook County and Chicago set records for early voting turnout in 2026 Illinois primary elections
A record number of people have voted early in the 2026 Illinois primary elections in Chicago and the Cook County suburbs, surpassing the turnout from the last midterm elections when President Trump was in office.
The Chicago Board of Elections said early voting numbers for the 2026 Illinois primary election Tuesday are already higher than in previous midterm years. According to officials, as of Sunday, a total of 160,844 ballots have been received for the primary election.
So far, 82,442 early vote ballots have been cast at Chicago's early voting locations. An additional 78,402 vote-by-mail ballots have been received and reported to the Board of Elections, officials said.
The early turnout so far tops the previous primary election record of 106,252 ballots received in early voting in 2018, the last time President Trump was in office during a midterm election season.
Officials in Cook County said they're seeing the same things in the suburbs. So far, according to the Cook County Clerk's Office, a total of 108,018 in-person early voting ballots have been cast in the suburbs as of noon Monday, breaking the previous 2018 early voting record for a gubernatorial primary, according to the Cook County Clerk's Office. Another 58,982 vote-by-mail ballots have been received, bringing the total for pre-election ballots to more than 167,000 as of 12 p.m. Monday.
"Primary elections are always a bit tough to predict the turnout overall. They can really vary wildly from election to election. This is a midterm and gubernatorial primary, but we've got some open seats, especially at the U.S. Senate level and congressional races, and we're seeing the excitement," said Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Max Bever.
Bever said the record for total voter turnout in a midterm primary in Chicago would be 33%.
"I know it's tough for an election official to celebrate, 'Yay, we might get to 30% turnout, 32% turnout,' but that would be an improvement over what we've seen in a lot of primary elections in Chicago," Bever said.
Not only is the number of early ballots being cast breaking records, but the amount of PAC money being spent on the primary elections in Illinois has been astronomical.
According to some watchdog estimates, political action committees have spent more than $31 million on the primaries, with special interest groups hoping their money will sway voters making their way to the polls.
"I've never ever seen this much. I think last cycle, it was under a million dollars of this independent expenditure PAC, super PAC money coming in," said former Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady.
Crypto, AI, and pro-Israel PACs have made up much of that funding, especially in the race for Congress in Illinois' 9th District, where 15 Democrats and four Republicans are running to replace U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
"It really reflects what's going to be interesting to see a division in the Democratic Party. You've got a younger generation of Democrats that aren't as traditionally supportive of Israel as maybe the older generation is. So that's a real divide that the Democrats are going to have to deal with in the future, and that's reflected in where this money is coming into that primary," Brady said.
Early voting and mail-in voting continue in Chicago and around Illinois on Monday, in the final day for both before Tuesday's primary.
Polls open at 6 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7 p.m. Anyone in line at 7 p.m. should stay in line and will be allowed to vote.
Click here for more information on the 2026 Illinois primary, candidates, voting hours and more.