See below for a list of voting guides provided to us by both members and partner organizations. These are not endorsements but opportunities for you to understand perspectives on candidates, do your own research, and make an informed, faithful choice! If you’d like to send a guide to be posted here, send to uchurch@universitychurchchicago.org
Chicago School Board Election Info:
From the Chicago Teachers Union, a list of candidates they are endorsing for the first ever ELECTED CPS school board, and a School Board Elections Pamphlet (CLICK TO OPEN) that provides an overview of the history and process…
INFORMATION ON JUDGES:
VoteForJudges.org compiles evaluations by bar groups including the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and maybe a dozen other lawyers’ groups that evaluate candidates for the bench in Cook County. Those evaluations will be available by June 1 in a simple grid through this website: http://www.voteforjudges.org/
(Note that the VoteForJudges.org now focuses on contested races where one candidate has been found to be better than qualified. They no longer publish in grid form results for races that are either uncontested or where all evaluations found all of the candidates to be merely qualified or unqualified.)
InjusticeWatch has an interactive guide — https://interactives.injusticewatch.org/judicial-election-guide/2024-general/en/
For judicial evaluations in the rest of the state, I don’t know of any one site that aggregates multiple judicial evaluations, but the State Bar Association is pretty thorough. You should be able to find them on their website at https://www.isba.org/elections
INFORMATION ON VOTING:
*sent by a member (we aren’t taking credit for this awesome information!)
FIRST, be sure you are registered to vote! https://ova.elections.il.gov/
The presidential election is on Tuesday, November 5, and early voting in parts of the state has already started. The State Board of Elections offers a list of early voting locations in every part of Illinois:
https://www.elections.il.gov/
If you want, you can request a mail-in ballot right now. You can download an application here:
https://www.elections.il.gov/
Also, your local election authority might have an online request form. (See below)
If you decide that you want to vote by mail, I encourage you to return it as soon as you can so that your local election authority has plenty of time to process it. If you don’t want to put your ballot into the mail, in Illinois you can submit it at early voting locations.
Whenever you decide to vote, here are some websites to get lists of all candidates who are running for office at your address, and to get evaluations (not endorsements) of candidates for judicial office.
Many of these websites will also allow you to request a mail-in ballot online and to confirm that you are registered to vote. If it turns out that you are not registered to vote at your current address, most of these websites will allow you to register online if you have a current Illinois driver’s license. If you don’t have a current driver’s license or if your local election authority’s site doesn’t offer that option, these sites will also have information on “grace period” registration, which will let you register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time on certain days in the offices of your local election authority and at the polling place on election day.
If you live in the City of Chicago, the Chicago Board of Elections website it here:
http://www.chicagoelections.
If you live in suburban Cook County, the Cook County Elections website is here:
https://www.cookcountyclerk.
If you live in DuPage County, that website is here:
https://www.dupageco.org/
If you live in Kane County, check out this website:
http://www.
If you live somewhere else in Illinois, the State Board of Elections has a list of all local election authorities in the state, together with their websites (if they have one). Note that municipal election boards are listed after all of the county election authorities. Not all offer sample ballots, but many do. Have a look:
https://www.elections.il.gov/
Also, there will be some non-binding advisory questions at the top of the ballot and depending on where you live, there may be some binding referenda in different parts of the state; those will appear right after the candidates seeking office but before those seeking retention as judges.
Good luck with your research, and happy voting.