The Chicago Public Square Illinois Primary Voter Guide Guide

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Early and mail voting is underway in the Illinois primary. Don’t cast your ballot in ignorance. Square’s here to help—with a guide to voter guides.

Mark your calendar.
■ March 1: Last day for regular online voter registration.
■ March 12: Last day for your election authority to receive vote-by-mail applications.
■ March 17: Election Day—from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Be ready.
■ Learn how to vote in Illinois from Capitol News Illinois and WBEZ.
■ Study WTTW’s guide to statewide, Cook County and Chicago contests.
■ The League of Women Voters runs down the races at stake.
■ Register to vote in Chicago and suburban Cook County.
■ Outside Cook County? See your county’s website: DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry, Kendall …
■ … or the Illinois State Board of Elections.
■ Available to help Election Day? Chicago and Cook County need poll workers.

Be smart.
■ See what’s on your ballot, courtesy of the League of Women Voters.
■ Every item and race, explained: BallotReady and Ballotpedia.
■ Check out the Evanston Roundtable’s profiles of candidates in contested primaries for Congress and the General Assembly.
■ Read Senate candidates’ answers to a Capitol News Illinois questionnaire.
■ Consider endorsements from the Chicago Tribune (in a print-and-clip format here), the Girl, I Guess Progressive Voter Guide, the City That Works blog, the Chicago Federation of Labor, N’DIGO founder Hermene Hartman and veteran political strategist Don Rose.
■ Have questions for the candidates? WBEZ wants your suggestions here.
■ Slice through all those judicial races—46 candidates running for 29 vacancies in Cook County alone—with bar association ratings …
■ … and Injustice Watch’s judicial primary guide.
■ Columnist Ed McDevitt has scoured all that to call out judicial candidates rated as “Not Qualified” or “Not Recommended” by one or more bar associations.

Do it.
■ Here’s where to vote Election Day in Chicago and the suburbs.
■ Trouble at your polling place? Call 866-OUR-VOTE.

Go beyond.
■ Get updates around the clock on the Square Bluesky page.
■ Be informed for every election. Sign up for Square email, sent to your inbox (free!) weekday mornings at 10.

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

‘Full of lies’ / Things he didn’t say / ‘A city blanketed in fear’

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‘Full of lies.’ Law professor Joyce Vance watched Donald Trump’s record-length State of the Union address last night so you didn’t have to: “If you had to take a drink every time he told the truth, you would have stayed sober.”
■ It was a field day—or night—for fact-checkers at the AP, PolitiFact and CNN.
■ The AP: Trump took a “dark turn on Democrats” …
■ … centering on what The New York Times (gift link) calls a trap for his critics—a moment you can see here:
■ Six Illinois Democrats, including Sen. Tammy Duckworth, stayed away—and one, from Naperville, walked out.
■ Wonkette’s Evan Hurst cheers on Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green, kicked out last night for bringing a sign that said “BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T APES!”
■ Mayor Johnson was blocks away at the opposition’s “State of the Swamp” event.
■ Gov. Pritzker says Trump delivered “two hours of baseless claims, shameless propaganda, and the ramblings of a wannabe dictator outlining his plans to steal American elections” …
■ … punctuated, periodically, by what journalist and filmmaker Steven Beschloss calls “the expected platitude which no one can possibly believe, even his cult: ‘The state of our union is strong.’”
■ USA Today’s Chicago-based columnist Rex Huppke: “He was painting a fanciful picture of an America that doesn’t exist.”
■ Former AP D.C. bureau chief Ron Fournier calls the speech “windy, whiny, whipsawing.”
■ One Republican senator’s take: “It didn’t suck.”
■ On Tyranny author Tim Snyder: “To complete the fascist transition, Trump has to give the country a war it does not want, and win it.”

Things he didn’t say. Bill Kristol at The Bulwark highlights concepts missing from Trump’s address: Equality, rights, the rule of law, the Constitution …
■ Also: Scandals engulfing his administration—including FBI chief Kash Patel’s use of an agency jet, which a whistleblower says delayed the agency’s response to a Brown University mass shooting.

‘Trump finally figured out a way to keep late-night hosts from getting big laughs mocking him.’ LateNighter’s Bill Carter says this was that way: “Keep talking so long that their shows start really late, the audiences go numb from sitting around so long, and the writers go half to sleep.”
■ The Onion’s on the case: “Trump Delivers State Of The Union Death Rattle.”

‘A city blanketed in fear.’ Pritzker’s “Accountability Commission” assessing the federal immigration assault on Chicago yesterday heard horror story after horror story—including the case of a third grader who stopped eating school lunch, afraid that entering his code would let immigration enforcement agents target his family.
■ Want to share your experience? Fill out this form.
■ Block Club: An immigrant father of three arrested unlawfully during that blitz is back with his family.
■ Echoing an unsuccessful effort against Illinois, Trump’s Justice Department is suing New Jersey’s governor over limits on ICE enforcement there.
■ The Sun-Times: Chicagoans stranded in Mexico’s outbreak of violence have options for flights home.

‘I’m supposed to … act like a nun in a Greek monastery and not say anything? I don’t think so.’ Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas—running for renomination next month and also a likely candidate for Chicago mayor next year—is unrepentant in the face of complaints about her behavior toward officials of the company getting paid to overhaul the county’s antiquated property tax and court systems.
■ Some of the Republican candidates for governor met in debate last night.
■ New polling finds the Chicago area’s 15-person 9th District Democratic congressional race down to single digits among three candidates.
■ Columnist* Marj Halperin: Illinois voters’ frustration over jam-packed House primary contests makes a strong case for ranked-choice voting.
■ Ex-U.S. Rep. Marie Newman is updating a list of political and campaign tools for activists, volunteers and voters.
■ Ready to grab a ballot? The Chicago Public Square Voter Guide Guide’s here for ya.

‘Bears fans are not going to let the Chicago Bears become the Hammond Hoosiers!’ Former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn** has called a news conference for this afternoon to launch a website and online petition appealing to ownership to keep the team here.
■ A plan to make the Bears an offer to move to Indiana has passed that state’s Senate almost unanimously.
■ Men Yell at Me columnist Lyz Lenz says on U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team member Jack Hughes’ defense of locker-room camaraderie with the president: “That means nothing when, behind closed doors, you’d rather laugh with a powerful man than stand up for women.”

‘Companies are using data, your clicks, your location, your device, who you are … to show different people different prices for the same thing.’ Illinois lawmakers are considering requirements that companies tell you when they’re using that info to decide what to charge you.
■ Columnist Christopher Armitage makes the case for local governments to make public options available for every avenue of commerce: “A city or county government could build an online shopping platform tomorrow. That idea sounds radical until you realize we already do it with the mail.”

Thanks. Mike Braden made this edition better. 

* And former WXRT News colleague to your Square columnist.
** Coincidentally, a longtime Square reader and supporter.

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