Today's Democratic campaign rally at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago was arranged to maximize contact with the party's volunteers and ensure that information about voting was immediately at hand. You couldn't walk through the corridor between a bay of elevators and the ballroom where former President Bill Clinton stumped for state Democrats without clipboard-bearing Democratic activists seeking get-out-the-vote help on November 2. Inside the ballroom, there was a laptop where you could find and confirm your polling place. Above another table hung a sign with an open-ended message -- "Voting questions." It all served to drive home a simple point -- perhaps the only point with the Election Day six days away -- about the importance of voting this year.

Many in the room had already done so and had spent time this month encouraging friends, family members, and strangers alike to do the same. Early voting numbers have heartened Democrats nationally, and an early voting push organized by the Illinois Democratic Coordinated Campaign, unions, and other party supporters appears to be producing results in Chicago and suburban Cook County.

The numbers, to be sure, are down versus 2008, when then-candidate Barack Obama was facing down Sen. John McCain in a historic election. But they're up versus 2006, the last comparable mid-term election year.

In the city, the latest release of unofficial early voting numbers from the Board of Elections tallied exactly 52,973 early voters, a total that outpaces the 14,752 who cast early ballots in 2006 by a factor of more than three-and-a-half. Another 55,000 suburban Cook voters had cast early ballots (versus nearly 33,000 in '06), Clerk David Orr's office said in a press release. These are hopeful signs for Democratic candidates in an election cycle headlined around the country by Tea Party activists and the candidates they're backing, a tough economy, and the lower voter turn-out often seen in non-presidential elections.

Before the rally today, party activists said they were putting their shoulder against the wheel to try to make a difference when the ballots are tallied. Tracy Rohrback, a recent university graduate who's volunteering for the Giannoulias campaign and searching for work, told Progress Illinois she's witnessed a bit of the apathy that historically accompanies mid-term elections among her broader social network. "The general feeling among acquaintances and friends of friends of mine is that it's not a presidential year and it's not as important," Rohrback said. She's pushing back against that idea. "Every election is a chance to move your beliefs forward and move your country forward." Rohrback mentioned that she educated her friends about grace period voting, voter registration, and Illinois' early voting program.

Oscar L. Varnadoe III, who works in security for Chicago Public Schools and is a member of SEIU Local 73 (full disclosure: the SEIU Illinois State Council sponsors this website), has been promoting a similar message as he gathered pledges -- from people waiting at bus stops, in parks, visiting malls, and elsewhere -- that commit a person to vote early. Varnadoe detailed the advantages of voting early and talked about the message he tries to convey about the importance of casting a ballot in a non-presidential year. Watch:

At the rally, Democratic U.S. Sen Dick Durbin focused the crowded room on three congressional candidates who are facing tough races this fall -- U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Debbie Halvorson and 10th District candidate Dan Seals -- before turning the mic over to Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias for brief speeches. Then, former President Clinton gave a long and detailed speech warning that the GOP's plans for national policy would return the country to the Robber Barons era of the 19th Century. Here's a clip:

Like Vice President Joe Biden's speech earlier this month on Chicago's West Side, Clinton offered an alternative history that pushes against the notion that the Obama administration has somehow failed to carry out its mandate. Clinton was particularly impassioned about defending the stimulus bill and lauding the student loan reform measure that passed Congress and was signed into law, calling it revolutionary. "This," he said of month's election, "is a clear choice." It's a message that activists like Rohrback and Varnadoe have already taken to heart.