The state board of elections says the number of registered voters in Illinois is higher than in any year since 1970 -- including 2008, when then-Senator Barack Obama ran for president.
The board says there are nearly eight-million registered active voters, a number that is certain to change right up to election day, November 8. The state is also seeing a healthy turnout for early voting with 47-thousand votes already cast just in Chicago and suburban Cook County.