More than 4,000 people have voted already in Winnebago County, according to County Clerk Margie Mullins. She says it’s been the highest turnout in all the years of early voting.
And Boone County has ballots from more than 2,100 early voters -- not including ballots that have been mailed out.
Boone County Clerk and Recorder Mary Steurer says she hopes more people who may be thinking about voting early will beat the potential Election Day crowds.
"If you want to early vote, I would just say to do it as soon as possible," she said, "because the closer to Election Day we start getting lines in our office also."
There are about 31,000 active registered voters in Boone County.
Steuer added that the early turnout may be due to high interest in the presidential election. But Mullins reports she’s heard Winnebago County voters say they didn’t want to vote because of discontent with the presidential election.
“That’s just one race," she said. "There’s many other races on the ballot that are important also that people should step up and vote for. If you don’t like the two candidates, you can leave it blank.”
Mullins adds that myths circulate about what votes are counted during the election process.
“A lot of people had the misconception that, with absentees through the mail, unless it was a close race, they never counted them," she said. "And that’s not true either. We count everything, and every vote does count.”
- WNIJ's Victor Yehling contributed to this report.
