Naperville Voter Guide: Voting in the Nov. 3, 2026 Election

By Naperville Guide · Published October 24, 2026

Most of Naperville is in DuPage County; the southern neighborhoods are in Will County. Each county runs its own election — different early voting schedules, different mail ballot handling, different polling assignments. Everything below is organized by county where it matters, and everything traces to the two county election authorities and the Illinois State Board of Elections. This guide is nonpartisan: how and where to vote, never who to vote for.

Voting on Election Day in Naperville: Tuesday, Nov. 3

Polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, everywhere in Illinois. If you are in line by 7 p.m., you are allowed to vote. On Election Day you vote at your assigned polling place — in Naperville that includes all three public libraries (Nichols, Naper Blvd., and 95th Street), schools, and park district buildings, assigned by precinct. Look yours up before you go: DuPage voters use the DuPage County Election Division voter lookup, and Will voters use the Will County Clerk's Nov. 3 election page, which pulls up your sample ballot and polling place by address. Not sure which county you're in? Your voter registration lookup will tell you — and if your registration shows an old address, read the grace-period section below.

Early voting in Naperville, by county

Early voting is open now and runs through Monday, Nov. 2 in both counties. (Our early voting guide from Oct. 13 covers the full site lists; here are the Naperville-area essentials with the counties' currently published hours.)

Voting by mail in Naperville

Illinois requires no excuse to vote by mail. The hard deadline: your county election authority must receive your application by Thursday, Oct. 29 — five days before the election, per the State Board of Elections. (You can also apply in person at your clerk's office through Nov. 2, but mailing an application this late is cutting it close; applying in person is the safer move now.)

Returning the ballot matters more than requesting it. A mailed ballot counts if it is postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by Nov. 17 — but election officials urge earlier mailing, since a postmark isn't guaranteed the day you drop it in a box. Alternatives: hand-deliver it to your county clerk's office by 7 p.m. on Election Day, or use a secure drop box — Will County has one inside the 95th Street Library, and DuPage lists drop box locations with its vote-by-mail information. One rule surprises people every cycle: a completed mail ballot cannot be turned in at a polling place or early voting site. If you bring it, judges will offer to let you surrender it and vote in person instead.

Not registered — or moved since you last voted?

Regular registration closed Oct. 6 and online registration closed Oct. 18, but Illinois has a backstop: grace-period registration runs through Election Day. You register (or fix an address change) in person and vote during the same visit — at any early voting site in your county, at your county election office, or at your polling place on Election Day. Bring two forms of identification, one showing your current address; Will County's published list includes a driver's license or state ID, utility bill, checkbook, library card, credit card, or student/employee ID. There is no way to register and then go vote somewhere else later — grace-period voters cast their ballot on the spot.

What's on the Nov. 3 ballot for Naperville voters

It's a long ballot. At the top: an open U.S. Senate seat for Illinois, your U.S. House race, Governor and Lt. Governor, and the statewide offices — Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and Treasurer. Below that: State Senate and State House, county board and countywide offices (clerk, treasurer, sheriff, and others), DuPage Forest Preserve District commissioners on the DuPage side, and judges — including yes-or-no retention questions, which need 60% "yes" to keep a judge on the bench.

Naperville is sliced into several congressional and legislative districts, and precincts draw different combinations of the races above — so any single candidate list printed here would be wrong for half the city. The reliable move is your official sample ballot: the county lookups linked above show the exact ballot for your address, including any local question at the end. On that last point: we checked both counties' official Nov. 3 referendum filings, and no Naperville city, park district, or school district (203/204) question appears on this ballot — the park district's funding referendum residents may remember was decided in the March primary. If your precinct does carry a district-level question, it will be printed on your sample ballot, so give the last page a look before you go.

FAQ

Voting done and looking for the rest of the week's plans? The Naperville events calendar has everything else on between now and Election Day.