PEORIA/PEKIN, Ill. – The first votes of the 2026 general election will be cast on Thursday.
Thursday marks the first day of early voting across Illinois, as well as the day mail-in ballots are being sent out to those who requested them.
In Illinois, people can also register to vote the same day they intend to vote. People will need to bring in two forms of identification, one with their current address.
Peoria County Commission Executive Director Jessily Joseph is encouraging those voting by mail to do it sooner rather than later.
“If you are using the postal service, postmark rules have changed,” Joseph said. “Items may no longer be postmarked the day they are dropped in the mail.”
Joseph says that tidbit is important because mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day in order for them to be counted. She says another way to ensure that mail-in ballots can be counted is to place them in drop-off boxes.
For Tazewell County, Clerk John Ackerman says a new trend is developing.
“We’re still a county that the majority votes on Election Day, but those numbers are getting closer and closer each and every year,” Ackerman said.
Ackerman says about 50% of the total vote count will come from Election Day. But he says 25% of that will come from early voting, and the remaining 25% from vote-by-mail.
Both Peoria and Tazewell County will conduct early voting at their main offices. But both counties will offer off-site early voting throughout their counties in the month of October.
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