Welcome, early voters!

I used to think that the only people who vote early do so because they're active in politics; maybe they have precincts to cover other than their own on Election Day. I used to think that such persons would not need a blog like this; as politically active persons, early voters would know exactly who they were voting for without need for a site like this.

In conversations with actual people, however, I have discovered that there seem to be a lot of people vote early just because they can. It's simply a matter of convenience.

Just a friendly caution to my early voting friends: It won't stop the phone calls.

And one other thing: I simply don't have everything put together -- yet -- regarding judicial candidates. I'm still scrambling to confirm union and other endorsements. The Tribune disclosed its support of Justice Mary Jane Theis for the Supreme Court yesterday, but has not yet gotten around to mentioning the rest of its judicial picks.

I will be starting my Organizing the Data picks in the next few days; I'll add as many per day as time permits -- and I will update these as new information becomes available. But for those early voters who just feel compelled to vote in the meantime, may I offer the following resources?

On this blog, to find information about the CBA's judicial candidate ratings, start at this post. For information about the ratings issued by the Chicago Council of Lawyers, click here. Want to see the Alliance grids? Click on the links in this sentence for the Supreme Court race, the Appellate Court races, the countywide races, and the subcircuit races.

You early voters do know what subcircuit you're in, right?

If not, you can see sample ballots by entering at this page of the Cook County Clerk's website or (if you're a Chicago resident) this page on the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners site.

For early voting sites in Chicago, click here. For early voting sites in suburban Cook County, click here.