Twenty–eight days from now, the nation will pick either the first African American president or first female vice president.

That historic choice is one factor pointing toward high voter turnout in the upcoming election.
Eric Shangraw has more on making sure you can vote.

The parking lot in front of the Save–A–Lot grocery store in Peoria's Campustown will be the sight of a last minute voter registration effort. The West Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council will have Deputy Registrars working Tuesday evening from six until midnight. At the stroke of midnight Tuesday, voter registration is over in Illinois.

"We are starting to see quite a few more young people being interested in being registered to vote. I've worked a couple of booths the last month or so and I've seen a lot of young people 30 and under that are anxious to vote," said WCIBCTC Executive Director Dan Silverthorn.

Peoria County election officials are anticipating more than 80 percent of eligible voters casting a ballot on November 4th.
Voting lines could be long and slow.
Many Peoria voters will be using equipment that debuted in the 2006 elections.

"A lot of folks do not vote until a presidential cycle. So anticipate 15 to 20–percent of voters may not have used these machines yet. So if it is new to them it may take them a little bit longer to vote," said Peoria County Clerk Steve Sonnemaker.

Voter registration is up throughout Central Illinois. In the City of Bloomington, 40,000 people registered to vote in the 2004 presidential race. This year the number is up to 47,000, almost a 20–percent increase.

If you don't register to vote by Tuesdays deadline, you can take advantage of "grace period voting." The new law allows you to go to your local election office between October 8th and 21st to register and vote at the same time.
You can also vote early between October 14th and October 30th at your local election office.