July 03, 2025
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Mail-in ballot requests, strong early voting has Kendall County clerk projecting a 58% voter turnout

By Mark Foster
Fall colors: Like the changing leaves, political campaign signs proliferate in autumn, particularly in from of the Kendall County Office Building in Yorkville, seen here on Oct. 18, 2022.

Fall colors: Like the changing leaves, political campaign signs proliferate in autumn, particularly in front of the Kendall County Office Building in Yorkville, seen here on Oct. 18, 2022. (Mark Foster)

YORKVILLE – Kendall County Clerk Debbie Gillette is forecasting voter turnout of 58% for the Nov. 8 general election.

Gillette’s projection, up 1% over the comparable mid-term election in 2018, is based in part on the large number of requests for mail-in ballots along with strong early voting turnout for this year’s contest.

The clerk’s office already has received 6,000 applications for mail-in ballots, Gillette said, double the 3,000 total such requests in 2018. Voters have until Nov. 3 to ask for an application.

Meanwhile, 880 voters have cast in-person ballots early at the Kendall County Elections Office in the county office building, 111 W. Fox St. in Yorkville.

In 2018, a total of 5,300 voters cast early ballots, Gillette said.

“I imagine we’ll still get there,” the clerk said of this election.

The elections office is open to voters from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Starting Oct. 31, the hours will be expanded to 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays through Nov. 7.

Weekend hours also will be added for those seeking to cast ballots at the elections office.

Saturday hours will be from 8 a.m. to noon Oct. 29 and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 5. Sunday hours will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 30 and Nov. 6.

Meanwhile, two additional early voting locations will open Oct. 24 at Oswego Village Hall, 100 Parkers Mill, and the Montgomery Campus of the Oswego Public Library, 1111 Reading Drive.

Both locations will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays through Oct. 28 and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29.

And the Oswego Village Hall and Montgomery library campus will be open for early voting from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 31 through Nov. 3.

On Election Day, the polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voters should go to the polling place listed on their voter registration cards or to the special “vote center” that will be established at Oswego High School, 4250 Route 71 in Oswego.

Under a new state law, every county must create an Election Day center in its largest municipality, where any registered voter in the county may cast a ballot. The county now has 78 voting precincts, served by 39 polling places plus the vote center.

There are two options for voters to cast their ballots by mail.

One is a mail-in ballot application only for the coming Nov. 8 general election. The other is an application for permanent vote-by-mail status.

Voters selecting the permanent option do not need to apply for a mail-in ballot for future elections, but will need to make a choice as to a political party designation for primaries.

Those who select the Democratic Party, the Republican Party or the local Kendall County Party will receive the appropriate ballot for primary elections, when voters from those political parties select their nominees for general election races.

Voters also may opt for a nonpartisan ballot that will include only referendum questions in primary elections, or a ballot only for elections that do not require a party designation, meaning general and consolidated elections.

Mail-in ballots must be postmarked no later than Election Day, or delivered to the elections office drop box by 7 p.m. that evening.