Fewer early and by-mail voters in Chicago this year than in 2020, but lines still long at polling places
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The countdown to Election Day continues with just five days to go—and long lines have been observed at early voting sites.
Some of the lines have stretched out the doors of the polling places and around streetcorners, and some voters have stood for hours to make their voices heard. At the Lincoln Park Branch Library, 1150 W. Fullerton Ave., the line was consistently two hours long Friday.
But no one CBS News Chicago saw gave up before getting to the voting booth.
"We have a daughter," said Marissa Reid. "We're thinking about the future I want her to live in."
Reid and her fiancé, Matthew Opritza, were at least an hour and a half from the front of the one at the Lincoln Park Branch Library when CBS News Chicago talked with them.
"He came yesterday, and he said it was really long. So I was anticipating it to be long," Reid said. "Didn't really expect it to wrap around the building but I budgeted like two or three hours."
But the wait did not bother them.
"I was raised saying like, you vote. It's your civic duty," Reid said. "So waiting in line—not a problem for me."
In Lakeview at the John M. Merlo Branch Library, 644 W. Belmont Ave., the line was even longer. Voters became friends while waiting hours together.
"I tried to come yesterday and the line was about the same length, and I thought surely if I come at a different time on Friday, it'll be shorter," said voter Joselyn Racelis, "but it actually was a little longer."
Kiara Augustin was also queued up on Belmont Avenue.
"This line is long," she said. The last one that I voted in, there was no line."
But Augustin planned on sticking to it.
"The country's so divided right now, and everyone really needs to get out and vote," she said.
On Thursday, the Chicago Board of Elections tallied 352,863 voters voting early and by mail. By comparison, five days out from the 2020 election at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the board had received 641,306.
In 2016, the board had received 276,253 early and mail-in ballots five days out.
"All these young people—so many different people in stripes and walks of life," said voter Laura Maloney. "It's amazing."
CBS News Chicago charted city Board of Elections data.
Voters 65 and older have made up the largest demographic of people voting by mail so far, while voters ages 18-29 have been the least likely to show up to early voting sites.
Voters are penciling in their picks not just for president and vice president, but also for the many local elections on the ballot.
"I'm pretty concerned about the school board," said Maloney, "not happy with the direction CPS is taking."
Back in Lincoln Park, poll workers came out to remind voters standing in like that anyone registered in Chicago can vote at any early voting site—no matter where they live in the city.
Polling sites for early voting technically closed at 6 p.m., but they are required to service every person who is on line by that time. Polling workers have said some days, they have been there until 11 p.m.