Campaign

Chicago sets early voting turnout record in Illinois primary elections

by Sarah Davis - 03/17/26 2:19 PM ET

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Chicago voters set a new early voting record in the lead up to Tuesday’s primary elections.

The Chicago Board of Elections said it received 188,057 votes during the early voting period, topping the city’s previous 2018 record of 106,252. A total of 102,775 of these votes were early vote ballots and 85,282 were cast through mail-in ballots, according to a Monday evening tally.

In an update on Tuesday afternoon, the Board said it had received a total of 250,364 ballots, including those cast through early voting and mail-in voting, by noon CDT. These numbers represent 16.11 percent of the total registered voters in the city.

Polling stations opened at 6 a.m. local time Tuesday morning, and Windy City voters have until 7 p.m. CDT to cast their vote in the primary election.

A total of 10 candidates are running in the Democratic primary to fill retiring Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) seat. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly are widely considered the top candidates in this race.

Krishnamoorthi has led the pack in ad spending, with about $37 million in advertising supporting his campaign, according to AdImpact. This is more than double the $14.8 million spent on advertising for Stratton’s campaign and the $1.3 million supporting Kelly’s bid.

Stratton is backed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), who donated $5 million to her campaign through the Illinois Future PAC. The lieutenant governor and Krishnamoorthi have attacked one another in the lead up to Tuesday’s primary election, sparring over campaign donations from Palantir and the lawmaker’s voting record.

Kelly, who is seen as the alternative to these two dueling Democratic challengers, has served in the Congress for a decade and her campaign has endorsements from the Congressional Black Caucus and Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

There are also several open House seats on the Illinois ballot to replace the seats vacated by Krishnamoorthi and Kelly and two other Democrats retiring this year, Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Danny K. Davis.

The record ballot count in Chicago’s midterm primary follows a record-setting voter turnout in North Carolina and a higher voter turnout compared to recent years in Texas in these states’ recent primary elections.

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