The lunch crowd at the Cicero Public Safety Office's polls was thin Tuesday, but that's because this polling place has been popular for the last few weeks. More than 1,200 ballots were cast from there before the official primary day. 

Suburban Cook County broke its previous early voting record with more than 122,000 early voters. 

"I usually early vote because I like to research the judges and the candidates especially with the Senate race being so long. There's like eight or 10 candidates on there, I need to know how they align with my values," said voter Dora Tamez.

A new system in Cook County called Election Lens is clocking the ballots in real time as they care cast. The clerk's office said the system allows their teams to see participation by day, hour and down to individual townships and polling places. That information will help them better staff polls in the future. It can also alert Cook County officials downtown if there are any issues at polls miles and miles away, like power or connectivity issues. 

Election Lens also lets them track mail-in ballots. Officials said if they see mail-in ballots slowing down or falling behind schedule, they can take swifter action to keep them moving. 

The Election Lens system has calculated that the suburbs with the highest turnout so far on primary day are Oak Park, River Forest and Evanston. That estimate does not count early voting or mail-in voting. 

Voter turnout in the city of Chicago is nearing 20% with four more hours until polls close.

The Chicago Board of Elections said as of 3 p.m. 296,884 ballots have been cast,, including early voting and already-counted vote by mail ballots. That's about 19.1% voter turnout citywide so far. 

The demographics for turnout have also shifted slightly. The age group that has cast the most ballots so far is ages 65-74, with 62,148 ballots cast, followed by ages 55-64 (50,720 ballots), voter over 75 (48,129 ballots), then voters 35-44 (43,198 ballots) and voters 25-24 (42,360 ballots).

So far, according to city officials, only 11,990 ballots have been cast by voters aged 18-24.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is unopposed in his primary, and is the first governor in Illinois to seek a third term since the 1980s.

His national profile has grown thanks to his vocal criticism of President Trump, especially during Operation Midway Blitz last fall. 

Among the four Republicans vying to challenge him is Darren Bailey, a former state representative and state senator from southern Illinois who was the Republican nominee for governor in 2022. Pritzker beat Bailey in the general election by 13 points. 

If Bailey again wins the GOP primary, that would set up a rematch in the Illinois governor's race.

Illinois State Rep. LaShawn Ford, who is running in the Democratic primary for Congress in the 7th District, said he was initially denied a ballot when he went to his polling place on Tuesday, after he was mistakenly told he had already voted.

Ford's campaign said he challenged the error, telling election officials he had not yet voted, and was offered a provisional ballot, which are issued to voters when there is a question about their eligibility to vote, but he declined.

"I was not going to accept a provisional ballot when I knew I was entitled to cast a regular ballot that would be counted without question," Ford said in a statement. "Every voter deserves that same certainty and respect."

After about 40 minutes, election officials resolved the issue and Ford was allowed to vote, according to his campaign.

"This should not happen to anyone," Ford said. "If this can happen to me, it can happen to any voter. We must ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot without confusion, delay, or unnecessary barriers."

CBS News Chicago has reached out to the Chicago Board of Elections for more information on the issue.

Turnout for the 2026 Illinois primary could be comparable to the last competitive presidential primary in 2020, a rare feat for a midterm election. Why is interest so high? 

Anthony Salvanto, CBS News executive director of elections and surveys, said one of the reasons is the high number of contested races on the ballot this year. He said he expects to see 1.5 to 1.6 million Democrats and about 1 million Republicans cast their ballots in the primary, on par with turnout in 2020.  

"For a midterm to come close to a presidential, that is really sort of eye-opening," he said. 

Salvanto said it's not just that the races are competitive; early voting data points to a substantial number of voters who never voted in a primary before casting ballots this year. That may make the results less predictable than in previous primaries. 

Salvanto said turnout among both Democrats and Republicans in Illinois looks strong so far.

Some of Illinois' primary races are crowded with candidates; others don't even have an incumbent on the ballot, guaranteeing a new face in the seat. North Central College political science professor Stephen Maynard Caliendo believes that will lead to some surprises.

"When you have this many candidates, somebody's going to win with a pretty low percentage of the overall vote. And that's problematic from a democratic standpoint," Caliendo said. "We don't in Illinois require that candidates get a majority plus one, as they do in other states. In other words, we won't go into a runoff if nobody gets to 50%. Whoever gets the most votes, that's going to be the person who is the candidate for November, and so because you're talking about those percentages that are spread out over numbers of candidates, surprises can absolutely happen tonight."  

Chicago's aldermanic and mayoral elections are nonpartisan and do involve runoffs if no candidate gets 50% of the vote. There have been runoffs in the last three mayoral elections. But the state does not have the same rules, and Chicago's local elections are in 2027. 

The Chicago Board of Elections say voter turnout is over 16%, including early voting and mail-in ballots, as of noon Tuesday.

Officials said as of 12 p.m., 250,364 ballots have been cast in total in the Illinois primary.

There are more than 1.5 million active registered voters in Chicago, putting voter turnout at 16.11% so far.

So far the highest number of ballots have been cast by Chicagoans aged 65-74 (53,074), followed by ages 55-64 (42,982), Chicagoans over the age of 75 (41,534) and then ages 35-44 (36,710). 

The number of ballots cast has also risen steadily hour by hour since polls opened at 6 a.m.

Polls close in Illinois at 7 p.m.

The race to fill Dick Durbin's Senate seat could provide to be a tone-setter for other Democratic midterm primaries on issues like President Trump's deportation policies and outside spending on state races. It also could reveal how much sway Gov. JB Pritzker has on Illinois Democrats.

Pritzker has endorsed and donated millions to the campaign of his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton. But all three leading Democratic candidates –- Stratton, and Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi –- have pledged to fight Trump on ICE and homeland security, as well as on other Trump Administration policies, but to differing degrees.

At the same time, the candidates have raised millions of dollars from outside groups including Super PACs and even individual out-of-state donors. Krishnamoorthi has outraised and outspent his opponents, and has outspent Stratton on advertising by more than $20 million, according to advertisement tracking firm AdImpact.

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There are seats on the 2026 Illinois primary ballot that haven't been open in years, even decades. 

Gov. JB Pritzker is running for a third term with a new running mate, because Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton is one of the Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate seat previously held for decades by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. Other contenders for the seat include U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly.

Because Krishnamoorthi and Kelly are both running for Senate, their U.S. House seats are now open in the 8th and 2nd districts. Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who previously represented the 2nd District, which Kelly now represents, from 1995 until Nov. 2012, when he stepped down citing health reasons, is on the ballot again and could win the Democratic nomination in a bid to reclaim the seat.

The 8th District, represented by Krishnamoorthi, includes the Far Northwest Side of Chicago and several west and northwest suburbs, including parts of Carol Stream, Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Geneva and Elgin. 

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis is also retiring, opening a crowded ballot in the 7th District for a seat that's been held for 30 years. 

U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky's retirement after nearly 30 years in office has opened a wide race with many candidates in the 9th District of Illinois. 

Do you know where your polling place is? 

To find your specific polling place, go to the Illinois Board of Elections website, where you need to enter your address.  You can do the same thing at the clerk's website for the county you live in. 

Some areas, especially in the city of Chicago, have multiple polling place representing the same precinct in the same neighborhoods, or polling places that serve multiple precincts that are both located in that neighborhood. It's best to check your polling place before you leave to cast your vote to make sure you're going to the right place. 

If you haven't already cast your vote in Illinois' primary, you've still got hours left to do so. 

All polls in Illinois open at 6 a.m. on primary day and close at 7 p.m. If you're still in line to vote at 7 p.m., stay in line because anyone in line will be allowed to cast their ballot and have their vote counted.

Chicago and Cook County both posted strong early and mail-in voting numbers before primary day but plenty of people also wait until the day of to cast their votes.