For the first time in this month's primary election, Cook County Jail is its own polling precinct. Last year, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a law making the Cook County Jail a new polling station for Chicago, allowing ballot access for pretrial detainees. The new law, which was vetoed by Bruce Rauner in 2018, took effect on January 1, 2020. The law states that jails in counties of more than 3 million people are allowed to host a temporary polling place for those eligible to vote. This law only applies to Cook County for now. The other counties (101 total) in Illinois will continue to use mail-in ballots.
Steve Benjamin, the three-term mayor and one of the first African Americans in elected to the office, put his support behind former Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Major Benjamin wanted a chance for the African American community to hear directly from the Bloomberg campaign.
