More than 450,000 Chicagoans had cast ballots in the Illinois Elections 2026 by mid-day Tuesday, a pace that put nearly one-third of the city’s voters into the count while polls were still open. By 11:30 a.m., 129,784 people had voted in person in Chicago, and election workers were still processing ballots as the day went on.
That is why the number is drawing so much attention now. Chicago had 1,565,133 registered voters on Tuesday, meaning the ballots already returned represented a large share of the electorate before the last hours of voting had even begun. A Chicago Election Board spokesperson said voter turnout appeared to be strong in this election so far, and polls were set to stay open until 7 p.m.
By Monday night, Chicagoans had already cast 211,657 in-person early votes and returned 109,215 mail-in ballots. That early pace was about 20 percent of registered voters, with in-person early voting rising about 24 percent compared with the 2022 Midterm General Election and more than doubling the March 17 primary. Chicagoans had also requested 242,230 mail-in ballots, leaving plenty still in the pipeline as Election Day voting continued.
The strong showing came with a built-in catch. Officials were still accepting same-day registration at polling places and early voting sites, which kept adding to the registered voter total even as ballots were being counted. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 will still be counted over the next two weeks, so the final turnout figure will keep moving after Election Day ends.
Chicago voters were choosing Chicago Board of Education president and board members, along with federal, state and legislative offices, and several referenda were also on the ballot. 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., where universal vote centers allowed ballots to be cast or mail ballots to be returned. The first read on turnout is already strong; the final number will not be settled until the city finishes counting what is still coming in.
