We close out summer Voter Services activities with a thank you to my fellow LWVE volunteers who handled voter questions at our table at the Connections Block Party at Twiggs Park: Liz Bryant, Mary Kelly, and Gail Weisberg. We had fun speaking with attendees, including volunteers at other community organizations’ tables. Thank you to Connections for the Homeless for throwing such a great community party.
We kick off the Fall season with work on an important new voter resource and early preparations for what is clearly going to be a busy primary season.
On
National Voter Registration Day (September 16), LWVE volunteers provided registration opportunities and answered voter questions at the Evanston and Skokie public libraries. In addition, the LWVE will join the LWVUS partnership with cosmetics retailer LUSH for a voter education event on Saturday, October 11. We will have a table at their Old Orchard mall location to answer questions about the upcoming primary election, recruit election judges, and register voters.
VOTE411
The LWVUS voter information database,
VOTE411, will replace the LWVIL Illinois Voter Guide as our voter resource. This platform was launched in 2012 and has been adopted by many other state Leagues over the years. It has strong administrative support at the national level and is very dynamic and flexible. It does require a strong commitment from each local chapter to build the information on their site. This is especially true as we build our first site. LWVIL held weekly training sessions through the summer, and we are ready to dive in. If you love working with spreadsheets and GIS maps,
contact me to discuss joining the project.
Primary Election 2026
As we go to press, there are 18 Democratic candidates and two Republican candidates for the 9th Congressional District. You can
check out the list on the FEC website. This will make for a very busy primary season for area Leagues. Voter Services chairs in the District have already begun discussions about how we will move forward in the realm of candidate forums. Think “alternate formats.” At this time, there are also two announced Democratic candidates for State Senate District 9, and we expect to have a forum in partnership with the other Leagues in this district. More information to come.
Voter Services Planning Meeting, October 22
There will be a Voter Services Meeting Wednesday, October 22, 7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Skokie Public Library. We will discuss opportunities such as becoming a deputy registrar, pollwatching, assisting with VOTE411, and candidate forums. The meeting is for LWVE members only, and registration is required by October 18.
Please be in touch with questions and comments: Judy Hoffman,
voterservices@lwve.org.