There’s no longer just an Election Day in Illinois. Since 2006, it’s been more like an Election Six Weeks.

And the start of this primary election’s 40-day early-voting period in Illinois is less than two weeks away, beginning just four days after the Iowa caucuses and five days before the New Hampshire primary.

Early voting and voting by mail for the March 17 primary begins Feb. 6. In Champaign County, the polls open at 8 a.m. that day at the county clerk’s office at the Brookens Administrative Center.

It kicks off a busy period for County Clerk Aaron Ammons, who is facing his first large-scale election cycle since winning the clerk’s office in the November 2018 election.

“On Jan. 31, we mail out ballots to our military and overseas voters,” Ammons said. “On Feb. 6, we mail out to those who have requested vote-by-mail ballots. That also is the day that early voting begins for anyone who wants to come to Brookens.”

A few weeks later, early voting expands to two University of Illinois campus area sites — at the Illini Union and the Activities and Recreation Center.

“Due to the students being on spring break on the day of the election (March 17) and their being gone that day, early voting will start March 2 on campus,” he said. “All the other remote locations will begin on March 9.”

Those other early-voting sites include the Meadowbrook Community Church, Leonhard Recreation Center and Church of the Living God, all in Champaign; the Elks Pavilion at Lake of the Woods Park in Mahomet; the Tolono Public Library; Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in St. Joseph; and the First United Methodist Church in Mahomet.

The record turnout for a primary election in Champaign County is 59,003, set in 2016, when both political parties had multiple-candidate presidential races (32,291 Democrats, most of whom voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and 26,592 Republicans, with the winner being Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas) on the ballot.

Ammons said he expects around 69,000 primary election voters this year, even though there are few Republican primary races. He said he hopes to see 18,000 to 20,000 take advantage of early voting.

“We’ve done lots of outreach and we hope voters take advantage of early-voting options we’ve made available,” he said.

That would mark another big increase in early voting in the county — the numbers have increased at every election. Ammons said vote-by-mail numbers in the 2016 primary amounted to 1,080 Democrats and 954 Republicans, while early voting included 4,280 Democrats and 2,838 Republicans. Grace-period voters — who could have voted early or on Election Day — amounted to 1,517.

That means that about 50,368 people voted on Election Day for the 2016 primary.

“I am a big advocate of early voting as well as vote by mail/vote at home. Both options increase accessibility, and my goal is to make voting accessible and fair to all eligible voters in Champaign County,” Ammons said. “I have looked at several other leading states, and it’s clear that the more accessible and convenient voting is, the higher and more consistent the turnout is.

"Vote by mail, for example, allows people to vote from the comfort of their home, take their time choosing their candidates, and all that’s left to do is mail the ballot back to us free of charge," he said. "Early voting is very quick; it’s simple and safe. The average time in our office is less than five minutes.”

Early voting also means less congestion at the polls on Election Day, easing the process both for voters and election judges and other clerk staff.

Ammons said he hopes to eventually establish an early-voting center at Parkland College and, like his predecessor, Republican Gordy Hulten, he supports the idea of large, centrally located voting centers instead of the current system that requires dozens of small, often rural sites, each staffed by four or five election judges.

But the voting-center idea has gone nowhere in the Legislature, and “we won’t see it in time for the 2020 elections,” Ammons lamented.

Early voting will be at the Brookens Center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 6 to March 6. The hours will be extended from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 9-13. And voting will be open one weekend: from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 14 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 15. The last day will be March 16 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The two campus locations will have nearly identical hours, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 2-6 and 9-13. They’ll also be open the two weekends before Election Day.

Early voting at the other remote sites will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 9-13;

Early voting at the other remote sites will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 9-13; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 14; from 1 to 4 p.m. March 15; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 16.

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 14; from 1 to 4 p.m. March 15; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 16.

More information is available on the county clerk’s website.