Locally and across Illinois, registered voters will have their first chance to cast a ballot today in the General Election of 2016.
Early voting is open and will remain open through November 7th. It’s also the first day a vote-by-mail ballot can be cast.
In Galesburg, election officials at City Hall have recently seen an uptick in registration leading up to today.
Election Commission Assistant Executive Director Taylor Lucero tells WGIL various online reminders have contributed to the increase.
“The past couple of days Facebook and Google have posted notifications encouraging people to register to vote,” Lucero says. “There was a banner of Facebook, I believe two days ago and Google had– I think it was called National Voter Registration Day or some kind of banner like that–which took people, depending on what state they lived in, it would give them the information to the website and would send them there.”
The last day for regular registration is October 11th, while online registration continues through October 23.
Executive Director Lisa Watson says she expects a record turnout in the city this election cycle, because of the popularity of the presidential race.
As of now, there are 18,291 active registered voters in Galesburg. In 2008, the last non-incumbent presidential election, 18,833 were actively registered by Election Day.
Galesburg voters can go to City Hall to vote and Knox County residents can vote at the courthouse.
