Early Voting Full Schedule and Locations:  Here’s the full schedule and locations for all early voting sites in McHenry County, as posted on the county clerk’s website.

Key Dates for 2024

Thursday, February 8 – First day to mail a ballot by mail, and first day to vote in person at the county clerk’s office

Monday, March 4 – Early voting begins at all early voting sites

Thursday, March 14 – Last day to mail a ballot by mail.  (Strictly speaking, the last day would be Election Day, but we would recommend if you have a mail-in ballot and it’s after March 14th, either to deposit it in a ballot dropbox, or bring to the polling place, surrender it and vote in person.)

Saturday, March 16 – Last day to vote early at temporary early voting sites

Monday, March 18 – Last day to vote early at permanent early voting sites

Tuesday, March 19 — Primary election

Register to Vote / Vote:

Vote by mail:  Vote-by-mail means your ballot will come to you in the mail.  You fill it out and then either mail it back to the county clerk or deposit in one of the ballot dropboxes at locations around the county.  Or, if you then decide you prefer to vote in person (either early or on election day), simply bring your mail-in ballot with you to the polling place, surrender it, and vote normally.  

To apply for vote-by-mail, you fill in a form and mail it to the county clerk’s office.  Here’s the form to vote by mail just for this next election, and here’s the form for permanent vote-by-mail.

Check your registration:  use this Registration Lookup page to verify that you are registered to vote.  You’ll need your name, address, and date of birth.  Besides verifying that you’re registered, it will also give you all your districts — federal, state, county, judicial and school board.

Register to vote online:  use the Illinois Online Voter Application for this.  Special note, however:  if you use this online form, you’ll have to bring your two forms of ID with you to the polling place the first time you vote (since the online form can’t verify your identity.)

Other ways to register:  We Democrats believe in democracy, so we have made it easy for any qualified citizen to register to vote.  Besides the online voter application, you can register to vote (a) when you apply for or renew your drivers license (“motor votor”), (b) at polling places when you go to vote, either early or on election day (“same day registration”), (c) at the county clerk’s office, or (d) via people commissioned by the county clerk as “deputy registrars”.  Many of our Democratic precinct committeepersons are commissioned by the county clerk as deputy registrars.

To register you must be a U.S. citizen, 18 years old by the time of the upcoming election, and to have lived at your address for at least 30 days.  You’ll need two forms of ID, at least one with your picture — normally your Illinois drivers license or state ID.

Federal and State:

Here’s how to find (a) your legislative districts, (b) your legislators, and (c) their contact information.

Find My Elected Officials:  Here’s the “Find My Elected Officials” page at the Illinois State Board of Elections to look up your legislators. Browse down, type in your address, click “Find Address.” A dialog box will pop up showing that it found your address. Click “OK”, then “Confirm Address.” Then browse down to find your US congressperson, your Illinois state senator and state representative, your senators and statewide elected officials, with full contact information for all.

Find State Senators & Representatives:  Here are the quick links at the website of the Illinois General Assembly for looking up any Illinois state senator or state representative, and their contact information.

Illinois State Board of Elections:  There’s tons of information here, including voter info, candidate info, and election schedules.

McHenry County:

Precinct, Polling Place, & Sample Ballot Locator:  Here’s the “Sample Ballot Locator” on the county clerk’s website.  Type in an address number and a street name, then click ‘Search’,  and your precinct will display.  If it’s election season, it will also display your polling place, and provide a link to your sample ballot.

Precinct Locator using the GIS mapping service:  Here’s the link to the McHenry County precinct viewer, which lets you quickly find your precinct and county board district. Click on the X in the little window that pops up at the top of the screen, then type in your street address, then click on the full address that pops up. A map will display showing your residence. Zoom out if needed to see your precinct.

County Board calendar, members and meeting portal:  Here’s contact information for members of the McHenry County Board. Here’s the calendar of county board meetings, from which you can add any meeting to your personal calendar, and here’s the Meeting Portal.

Election manual:  Here’s the official McHenry County manual for conducting elections, with much information for election judges and anyone interested in the workings of our democracy.

Tax Rates:  want the straight dope on your sales tax rates etc.?  Here’s the Tax Rate Database of the Illinois Department of Revenue.