Where can I vote: Voters head to the polls in Illinois on Election Day 2024 at 950 polling places throughout Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) — It’s Election Day and voters are heading to the polls across Illinois.

The Loop Supersite was already very busy on Tuesday morning, with a line out the door before the polls even opened.

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“I heard there were a lot of lines last night so I decided to get here early,” said voter Patrick Forkin.

“I wanted to feel the actual pulse of voting day,” said voter Brie Ruiz. “Early voting is cute or whatever, but let’s notice what’s really going on.”

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From As of 9 a.m., over 611,000 ballots have been cast in Chicago, including early voting and previously processed mail ballots. This is a turnout of over 40%.

Significantly more women than men are turning out, which is what many analysts said this election could turn on nationally.

And there appears to be an early rise in younger voters, certainly more so than off-year and local elections.

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, over 36,000 people voted on Monday alone.

People spent hours queuing at early voting locations across the city.

Officials in Chicago said more than 500,000 people cast early ballots this election. Of the half a million, 331,000 voted in person.

“What we saw was a lot more people showed up later,” said Max Bever of the Chicago Board of Elections. “Either they decided later, or they wanted to vote before election day.”

Milagra Ward planned to be one of those people. Instead, she handed in her postal ballot on Tuesday morning.

“I actually intended to send it in earlier, but I waited until the last minute,” Ward said. “And when I saw the line, I was happy that I could easily put it in the mail and the ballot, and I just didn’t want to stand in line.”

There are many issues that bring people out in this election.

“So many things I’ve seen happen with Trump,” said voter Brian Myers. “He talks about how the other party is corrupt, but then you see all his people get put in jail. The false equivalencies and everything else, it just adds up and there was no way to sit on the sidelines for that here.”

The war in Gaza and global affairs are also top of mind for voters when it comes to electing a president.

“I feel like whether you like him or not, who’s going to be the one to draw the line in the sand?” Forkin said.

Chicagoans are ready to usher in a new dawn of leadership.

“The divisiveness, all the negativity, not being right about the issues that Americans are going through at this time. We need to talk about that, not about each other,” said voter Brian Harris.

Officials said you shouldn’t see lines as long as those Monday at early voting locations.

And that’s because almost 950 polling places are open Tuesday across the city until