Politics

Sub-Zero Wind Chills Expected as Polls Open Tuesday. Will Voters Brave the Cold?

When polls open Tuesday at 6 a.m., voters and poll workers will be greeted with sub-zero wind chills in Chicago and across northeast Illinois, according to the National Weather Service’s forecast for Election Day.

It will feel more like January than March, the weather service said, with wind chills struggling to top single digits even by noon on Tuesday.

Could the cold have an icy effect on voter turnout?

“Chicago weather has long played a role in Election Day turnout, as well as whether election judges show up to their assigned sites in the morning,” said Max Bever, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections.

But early voting totals so far have been encouraging, he said, skewing closer to higher turnout back in 2018, compared with the record low Chicago saw in the March 2024 primary.

“Voters seem fired up,” Bever said, “and we hope this trend continues into Election Day.”

The March 2024 primary saw turnout sink to just 20% in Chicago — unusual for a presidential election year. In the 2022 primaries, fewer than 23% of registered voters cast a ballot.

But with a Senate seat on the ballot and several open congressional districts up for grabs for the first time in years, voters could feel compelled to brave the cold.

Bever urged people to bundle up, but also noted that long lines at polling places aren’t as common during primaries as the general election

“Election judges and voting officials are trained to welcome people inside to line up and not have people stand outside, if possible,” Bever said.

Chicago voters can always head to the downtown super site (137 S. State St.) or their ward’s early voting site to cast their ballot Tuesday. All of these locations are designed to accommodate large numbers of voters, he added.

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, 188,057 ballots have already been cast in the run up to Election Day, as of March 16, representing a combination of in-person early voting and mail-in ballots.

Of the more than 173,553 requested mail-in ballots, 85,282 have been returned. Though vote-by-mail has been increasing the past several years, and 80% are typically returned, changes announced this year by the U.S. Postal Service could upend those totals.

The Postal Service said it couldn’t guarantee ballots would be postmarked the day they were mailed, meaning ballots dropped in the mail on Tuesday might be postmarked past the March 17 deadline. Voters were encouraged to mail their ballots at least a week in advance. 

Anyone who mails their ballot on Tuesday should take it to the post office counter and ask to have an employee stamp it with a manual postmark, according to advice from the Illinois Attorney General's office. 

In suburban Cook County, a total of 167,000 pre-election ballots have been cast as of noon Monday, according to the Cook County Clerk’s office. Of those, 108,018 ballots were cast in person — setting a new early voting record for a primary — and 58,982 were mail-in ballots.

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Anyone who’s in line at 7 p.m. has a right to cast a ballot.

For more voting information, including candidate profiles and questionnaires, visit the WTTW News Voter Guide. 

Contact Patty Wetli: [email protected]

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