The start of early voting for the June 28 Primary Election at the Chicago Board of Election Supersite in the Loop is being delayed from Thursday until May 26 to account for time needed to remove the ward map referendum question from ballots and to conduct ballot-proofing and to test voting machines before the election, according to a news release from the Chicago Board of Elections. Vote By Mail ballots that were set to be sent to voters beginning Thursday will now be sent to voters early next week, according to the news release. Voters can find more information on hours for the supersite and locations and hours of other early voting sites online.  

Cook County could soon move into the “high risk” category for COVID-19 spread “because the CDC’s measurement of Cook County's hospitalization data for Community Levels reflects the burden on the whole federally defined Health Service Area, which includes Cook, Lake, DuPage, and McHenry Counties,” according to a Tuesday update from the Chicago Department of Public Health. But even if the county crosses the higher threshold, “the City of Chicago would not immediately reinstate an indoor mask mandate, because severe outcomes in Chicago remain relatively rare and the burden of COVID-19 in our local hospitals remains low,” officials said.