A record number of suburban Cook County residents in Illinois are registered to vote in Tuesday’s Presidential Primary Election, according to Cook County Clerk David Orr.
The 1,443,261 registered voters in suburban Cook County are the most ever registered to vote for a Presidential election, primary or general, Orr said.
The Clerk’s office has conducted a number of voter registration drives this election season. Over the Martin Luther King Day weekend, for instance, Orr and his office joined faith communities and civic groups to hold voter registration and deputy registrar training sessions, so community members had the tools to register others.
Eligible Cook County residents can register to vote at an Early Voting site through Monday, March 14, which is the last day for early voting. Through Saturday, 39 early voting sites will be open. On Sunday and Monday, 14 sites will be open. For a complete list of early voting locations and hours, voters can go to cookcountyclerk.com/earlyvoting.
Those not registered by Election Day, Tuesday, March 15,must register at their home precinct. Details on how to register to vote up to and including election day, including what you need to bring with you to the voting site, can be found on the Clerk’s website, cookcountyclerk.com/register.
Since the beginning of the current school year, Orr’s staff have held voter registration events at nearly 40 suburban high schools, where they have helped about 3,400 students to register to vote.
For the first time in a presidential election, 17-year-olds may vote in a primary election if they will turn 18 by the date of the November General Election. From Sept. 1, 2015 to Feb. 16, 2016 (the end of regular voter registration for the primary), 5,775 suburban Cook County 17-year-olds, either at registration events at their schools or on their own, have registered to vote. More 17-year-old females – 3,234 – than males – 2,541 – have registered to vote for the primary.
(Office of The Cook County Clerk)
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Alicja Otap
