Illinois is among 29 states and Washington, D.C., being sued by the Trump administration for access to their complete, unredacted voter registration databases.

Early voting sites opened in all of Chicago’s 50 wards Monday. Early voting also expanded to a total of 55 locations for suburban Cook County residents.

President Donald Trump has delivered the State of the Union. Now the challenge for him is to make that message stick.

Join WTTW as we launch our Firsthand: Democracy initiative. We explore the state of civic participation and hear how some Chicagoans are working to strengthen democracy.

The debate over how to respond to President Donald Trump’s aggressive efforts to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history is the newest flashpoint in the race for Cook County Board president.

Early voting for the March 17 primary election is now open at the Chicago Board of Elections office, located at 69 W. Washington St. on the 6th floor, and at the new Chicago Board of Elections supersite, located at 137 S. State St.

Republicans said the legislation is needed to prevent voter fraud, but Democrats warn it will disenfranchise millions of Americans by making it harder to vote.

The Trump administration is pushing states to hand over their full voter rolls, or list of actively registered voters. The administration has sued more than 20 states and Washington, D.C., in an attempt to secure the sensitive information.

The Chicago alderperson is running as an independent vying for the seat of outgoing U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García in Illinois’ 4th Congressional District.

The proposed non-binding ballot question violates Illinois’ election law, which requires advisory questions to “be confined to one topic and should not contain alternative or bifurcated questions,” the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners unanimously ruled.

Reporters found the 60-year-old governor did roughly 100 one-on-one media interviews in 2025, his most of any year in his tenure as governor. Of those, 81% were with national media outlets, podcasters, social media influencers or television entertainment hosts — a major uptick from early in his tenure.

President Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency disbanded less than a year into Trump’s second term and appeared to have caused more chaos than actual savings to the federal government.

Catherine “Cat” Sharp said she was ending her bid to represent Cook County’s 12th District on the Board of Commissioners in order to “focus on winning the legal battle against the Trump administration.”

Less than four months after announcing his reelection campaign, Walz said Monday that he could no longer devote the energy necessary to win another term, even as he expressed confidence that he could win.

President Donald Trump, whose loss of the House halfway through his first term led to two impeachments, is trying to keep history from repeating — and doing so in ways his opponents say are intended to manipulate next year’s election landscape.

As states undertake mid-decade redistricting instigated by President Donald Trump, Republicans and Democrats are using a tit-for-tat definition of fairness to justify districts that split communities in an attempt to send politically lopsided delegations to Congress.