Most Voting Early In Person: Illinois Patch Poll

Shannon Antinori
Updated ·4 min read

ILLINOIS — We're exactly one week away from the 2020 presidential election, and an overwhelming number of readers who took Patch's early voting poll say they're voting early in person. And most were reporting good experiences and good organization at the polls.

As of Friday, the Illinois State Board of Elections said it had mailed more than 2.3 million vote-by-mail ballots and received more than 1 million completed mail-in ballots. Meanwhile, more than 760,000 people have voted early in person, according to the state.

Of the more than 2,300 people who took Patch's non-scientific poll, more than 60 percent said they've already voted early in person or plan to do so. Despite reports of a record number of mail-in ballot requests, around 28 percent said they are voting by mail, while 10.3 percent said they plan to vote in person on Election Day.

Only .3 percent said they're not sure how or if they'll vote and .5 percent said they're not voting at all this year.

As for why they chose their voting method, an overwhelming number of Illinois voters shared the same reason: COVID. Most cited safety reasons, while others said they chose their voting method based on convenience. Others — who presumably opted out of mail-in voting — said they "do not trust mail-in voting," that "there's too much fraud" and that they wanted to be sure their vote was counted. Others said they hoped to avoid long lines, while some said they always vote in person.

As to why some opted not to vote at all, readers said they "cannot trust any politician. They will say or do anything to get elected." Another also took the cynical route, saying, "Voting in Illinois doesn't matter. Democrats always win."

Others used that question to judge those who chose not to vote, with one reader saying, "If they don't vote they are very unpatriotic and lousy citizens" and another saying, "there is no excuse for not voting." But another replied, "You couldn’t have stopped me from voting this year."

Though Cook County reported wait times of up to 75 minutes at the polls last week, early voters who responded to Patch's survey didn't seem to mind the wait. Nearly 50 percent reported wait times of less than an hour, with 14.1 percent reporting a wait of around an hour and 10.9 saying they waited more than an hour.

But however long they waited, most readers reported good experiences at the polls. Here's a sampling of responses:

  • Quick and easy

  • Pleasant

  • No problems

  • No issues

  • Long lines

  • Outstanding! Great workers. Very clean. Easy process. Pleased.

  • Better than expected

  • Smooth sailing

  • Lots of empty polling booths not enough officials to get people in door quick enough. 4 at a time with over 20 empty voting booths.!! Took over an hour. Could be cut in half.

  • Friendly, spaced out, sanitary

  • Good, they were very organized at the library. Only weird thing was they said I had to reregister, which I did not understand as I have been voting there in every election?

  • It was fine. Line went smooth. Everyone was 6' apart. Except inside it was a little close.

  • Very good. In and out quickly.

  • I was in and out in less than 15 minutes. Much better experience than the last go around.

  • Great, other than they'd run out of "I Voted!" stickers.

  • It was fine. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of social distancing but Kane County was trying hard and I appreciated the effort.

  • The line for electronic voting was much shorter, so that's what I did. I felt a little weird just handing over the card with my voting data on it rather than the traditional paper ballot...I guess I just have to trust it will be counted correctly.

  • It was very convenient and felt more like Election Day than mailing a ballot would have!

  • It seemed a little chaotic, dirty, and too close for social distancing once inside.

  • I was in the area of City Hall twice during the week and the line was really long so I didn't wait. I went Saturday afternoon and the line was not bad.

  • Fine except one poll worker was especially disrespectful towards my elderly mother and her essential tremor disability. he was just awful. :( Everyone else was lovely!

  • Long lines due to only 9 ballot kiosks

  • It moved along, 40 minutes, start to finish. Well run.

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This article originally appeared on the Across Illinois Patch