Early voting in Illinois officially ends Thursday ahead of the local elections next week. But there is a way around this deadline.

City voters can cast absentee ballots in-person at the Chicago election board’s downtown headquarters from Friday through Monday. And suburban Cook County residents can visit any of the county clerk’s six locations to take advantage of this last-minute deal.

Of course, anyone who misses it can always vote on the actual election day, next Tuesday.

So far, early voting has been heavy in some spots, and weak in others. In Chicago, half of the 14 wards with aldermanic runoff elections have seen more than a thousand early voters. The most popular by far has been the 41st ward on the far Northwest Side.

In suburban Cook, Wilmette leads the way (there’s a hot school funding referendum there), followed by Chicago Heights, which is electing a new mayor.