The Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide

Election Day at last. Don’t cast your ballot in ignorance. Chicago Public Square’s here early today to help—with a guide to voter guides.

■ As results roll in, watch for updates around the clock on the Square Bluesky account.

Be ready.

■ You can register to vote on Election Day itself.

■ Outside Cook County? Learn more at your county’s website: DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry, Kendall …
■ … or from the Illinois State Board of Elections.

■ Outside Illinois? Start here.

Get schooled.

■ Generate a customized ballot for suburban Cook County or Chicago.

■ Your ballot, explained: BallotReady and Ballotpedia.

■ Consult the League of Women Voters Education Fund’s Vote411 site to see what’s on your ballot, register to vote and check your registration.

Check voter guides from …

■ … the Sun-Times and WBEZ …

■ … the Tribune (gift link) …

■ … City Cast …

■ … and Chalkbeat’s guide to the first election of the full Chicago School Board.

■ Meet board presidential candidates in a WTTW-TV town hall.

■ See answers candidates for Congress, the Illinois General Assembly and Cook County state’s attorney have given for the Sun-Times’ survey.

■ Review all those judicial candidates via the Alliance of Bar Associations ratings roundup and Injustice Watch.

Follow the money.

■ Want to know which candidates are taking whose cash? Transparency USA, Illinois Sunshine and the Illinois Elections Board are tracking that.

■ Popular Information’s PaidForBy app lets you upload a snapshot of a political mailer to learn who really funded it.

Consider endorsements from …

■ … the Girl, I Guess and City That Works blogs …

■ … the co-owned Daily Herald and Tribune—although (go figure) many are behind a paywall and “a corporate edict … prevents us from making formal endorsements in the Illinois races for U.S. Senate and governor” …

■ … but the Trib’s “bedsheet ballot,” a names-only list of its picks, is printable free here.

Do it.

■ Find where to vote in Chicago and the Cook County suburbs …

■ … or, anywhere else: “Where’s My F**king Polling Place?”

■ The ACLU explains how to exercise your voting rights, resist voter intimidation efforts and access disability-related accommodations and language assistance …

■ … or call 866-OUR-VOTE.

Go beyond.

■ Be informed for every election. Sign up for Square email, sent (free!) weekday mornings at 10—which is when you’ll find tomorrow’s edition in your inbox.

■ If you’ve found this useful, you can help keep Square coming with a contribution—of as little as $1, just once.

This is a work in progress.

■ Spot a mistake? Know of another source that’ll help people vote smart? Email Voterguide@ChicagoPublicSquare.com.

■ Know someone else ready to vote? Share this guide with a friend.

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‘Jewish people in danger’ / ‘It’s torture’ / Taste of … trouble

Check your clocks. Hope you weren’t stuck in an infinite loop over the weekend. Is it Christmastime yet?

‘Haley Stevens put Jewish people in danger.’ Progress Report editor Jordan Zakarin on Stevens’ last-minute double-cross, endorsing Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers over her former Democratic primary opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed: “Republicans maintaining power would be catastrophic for Jews around the world.”

■ Pro-Israel Political Update columnist Steve Sheffey: “So-called Jewish Democrats’ argument for voting for Rogers or leaving the ballot blank boils down to destroying the country to ensure that the Democratic Party meets their definition of pro-Israel.”

■ Veteran CNN White House reporter Jim Acosta: “Stevens has thrown her support behind a man who champions Trump’s every despicable instinct.”

■ The president on Stevens: “I’d love her to join the Republican Party.”

■ A jaw-dropping joke on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment: “A record number of people voted in Israel’s election—which is great to see, regardless of if you’re on the right side, or the left side, or the genocide.”

Meanwhile, in Alaska … The FBI’s come knocking—looking for Senate stalking-horse candidate Dan J. Sullivan, a former Chicago-area guy (August link) who has almost the same name as the incumbent Republican but whom the AP says “nobody has seen … for weeks.”

■ Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias: “This weekend … Trump repeatedly said … the lawyer who regularly defeats his voter suppression and election subversion schemes should be ‘held criminally responsible’ over Alaska’s U.S. Senate race. That lawyer is me.”

■ A New York Times gift link: “Repeated compliance disputes and personal attacks on judges are straining relations between the executive branch and the judiciary.”

■ In what law professor Joyce Vance calls “a remarkable order,” a federal judge has ordered Trump’s Justice Department to quit threatening election officials with criminal prosecution.

■ The Onion: “Trump Designates Poll Watchers As 7th U.S. Military Branch.”

‘Things no other president would say.’ The Times finally went there, concluding that Trump’s public speeches reveal a man “more profane … and less coherent than he was in 2016” (gift link).

■ Columnist Jeff Tiedrich: “Look who just woke up from their decade-long slumber, to work out on their very own what the rest of us sussed out years ago.”

‘Even in districts where you think your candidates are safe … the bigger the results for Democrats on Tuesday, the harder they’ll be for Trump to litigate or deny.’ John Oliver delivered a last-minute pitch to get out and vote.

■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke lists “five big reasons Republicans don’t deserve your midterm vote.”

■ Vote smart. Check the Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide.

‘It’s torture.’ A class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others against the Indiana state and federal governments accuses them of creating a prison environment to detain people who’ve been arrested by Chicago-area immigration agents but who haven’t been convicted of a crime.

■ CNN, NBC and WXRT News alumnus Charles Jaco compares civil unrest in France to the relatively modest demonstrations here: “Under the French Constitution, both the right to strike and the right to health care are guaranteed. That simply means if you miss work to protest, you can’t be fired, and your right to … healthcare is guaranteed.”

Taste of … trouble. A WBEZ/Sun-Times analysis of city records finds more than half this year’s Taste of Chicago vendors were cited for health code violations—and little evidence that food providers at private events like Lollapalooza were inspected at all.

■ What did you eat there? Search a database of Taste purveyors to see how they rated.

Chicago Media Journal’s windfall. Igor Studenkov’s journalism-watchdog startup has landed a grant to expand …

■ … and he graciously tips his hat to the son of this newsletter’s publisher.

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