More than 450,000 early vote and vote-by-mail ballots have been cast as of Sunday night for the upcoming presidential election, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. If you plan on voting on Election Day on Tuesday, here’s what you need to know.
Voters
The hotline aims to help the U.S. Department of Justice deter and combat discrimination and intimidation at the polls, election fraud and threats of violence directed at election officials and poll workers, according to a news release.
“People are realizing Election Day is now right around the corner and now taking advantage of these early voting options to get their civic duty out of the way,” said Max Bever, director of public information at Chicago Board of Elections.
Voters in Chicago and suburban Cook County can look up their voter information online, where voters can verify their voter registration, locate their polling place, view a sample ballot and check the status of a vote-by-mail ballot.
Early voting is now available at a voting supersite at 191 N. Clark and the Chicago Board of Elections offices at 69 W. Washington, 6th floor. Early voting in all 50 wards begins Oct. 21.
Young voters gathered in the West Loop at the Epiphany Center for the Arts. The event included speakers and a series of voter engagement workshops. Trainings were on topics such as building inclusive voting coalitions on college campuses, messaging during polarized times and running high school voter drives.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois were among the elected officials who attended the AAPI caucus meeting on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.
Select voting locations will have assigned bilingual poll workers and paper ballots in Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tagalog and Polish, according to the Chicago Board of Elections. Additionally, every precinct polling place in the city will have a touchscreen voting machine and audio ballot in 12 languages.
Some teenagers in Illinois who are too young to vote for this year's primary and general election are already preparing for their first chance to vote in other future elections.
Starting Monday, voters in Chicago will have more places to cast their ballots ahead of the Illinois primary election on March 19.
The Chicago Board of Elections offices on the sixth floor of 69 W. Washington St. and its Loop Supersite at 191 N. Clark St. will reopen for early voting on Wednesday at 9 a.m.
It's rare when newspaper editorial boards and fiscal watchdog groups recommend that residents vote to increase their property taxes. But that's exactly the case as Cook County voters face a binding question on their election ballot: Do you want to pay a little more to help fund the Cook County Forest Preserves?
A new report estimates an additional 111-thousand voter registration applications have been processed at Illinois Secretary of State facilities annually, thanks to a 2018 automatic voter registration law. But advocates say Illinois can — and should — do better.
Pounding his fist for emphasis, President Joe Biden challenged senators on Tuesday to “stand against voter suppression,” urging them to change Senate rules in order to pass voting rights legislation that Republicans are blocking from debate and votes.
There were few reports of voting or equipment problems, other than the sporadic power outage or polling place opening late that is not unusual for Election Day. It was too soon to gauge the effects of new voting restrictions in place in a few states.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday both marked the one-year anniversary of U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ death by urging Congress to honor the legacy of the civil rights icon by enacting laws to protect voting rights.
