Chicago Voters Line Up on the Last Day of Early Voting, With More Than 280,000 Ballots Already Cast
As of Sunday, nearly 180,000 Chicagoans had voted early in person and more than 100,000 mail ballots had been returned — a little under 20 percent of the city's registered voters — before a single Election Day ballot is cast. Early sites stay open until 7 p.m. Monday.
Chicagoans spent Monday lining up for the last day of early voting in the 2026 midterm election, and the line had a head start: as of Sunday, more than 280,000 ballots had already been cast in Chicago, a little less than 20 percent of the city's registered voters, according to CBS News Chicago's election-eve report, read in full by this desk. Nearly 180,000 of those voters cast their ballots early in person, and more than 100,000 mail-in ballots had been returned as of Sunday evening.
Anyone still holding an early vote has until 7 p.m. Monday. Early voting locations — the downtown supersite at 137 S. State Street, open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and sites in all 50 Chicago wards — close out the early period Monday evening. After that, the election moves entirely to Tuesday: polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. across Illinois on Election Day, when Chicago voters can cast a ballot at their precinct or at any city vote center.
The candidates spent the final day chasing the voters who had not yet decided. Republican Darren Bailey, challenging Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker for a second time, was set to make his final pitch at Daley Plaza at 10 a.m. Monday, while Pritzker had five campaign stops scheduled across the state, starting downstate in Collinsville in the morning and ending in Rockford in the evening. Beyond the governor's race, Illinois voters are choosing a successor to retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, five members of the state's U.S. House delegation are leaving, and — for the first time — Chicago voters are electing a president of the Chicago Board of Education, with Jessica Biggs, Victor Henderson and Hilario Dominguez on the ballot for the seat.
