Because of the pandemic, applications to vote by mail in the November election have been sent to residents of Rock Island County.
County Clerk Karen Kinney says the applications were sent to 85,570 registered voters. And by encouraging people to vote by mail this fall, she hopes to insure the safety of voters, poll workers, and her staff from the coronavirus.
" We will not have as many early vote centers open. We will be open here on September 24th and then two weeks before the election we will be open at Western Illinois University, because we're counting on vote by mail to take the place of the early vote centers."
Her office will not mail the official ballots until late September ( 9/24 ), when early voting will also open.
Thanks to grants from the state, all counties in Illinois are sending out applications to vote by mail.
Kinney says she's working closely with the post office.
"We've each been assigned an agent to deal with our questions. I'm hoping that it goes very smoothly, I don't see why it wouldn't. We've always had vote by mail, just not to this degree."
For people who don't vote by mail or vote early, 38 polling places will be open in Rock Island County on election day, November 3rd.