Uptown Update: Last Minute Voting Information

This was posted at Uptown Update on Saturday. At this point two days away from Election Day and due to this pandemic we're in unprecedented times.

So unprecedented that a supersite will be set up at our very own United Center on Election Day on November 3, 2020. According to U.U.:

If you're waiting to vote on Election Day, which is Tuesday, November 3rd, you must do so at your precinct's polling place between 6am and 7pm. Or you can go to the United Center (1901 West Madison), which is a new thing, Election Day only.

Also noted you can still early vote until Monday, November 2, 2020 in all 50 wards throughout the city and the Loop Super Site at 191 N. Clark Street. I noted a few days ago the early voting site in Ward 9 with this flyer

 I also made sure to note that if you have mail-in ballots you can drop them off at various library locations throughout the city through Election Day. Here are some nearby locations where you can do so:

• Mount Greenwood Library, 11010 S. Kedzie Ave
  Sun., Closed; Mon. & Wed., 10-5; Tue. & Thu., Noon-7; Fri. & Sat., 10-5
• Woodson Regional Library, 9525 S. Halsted St
  Mon. - Thu., 9-8; Fri. & Sat., 9-5; Sun., 1-5
• West Pullman Library, 830 W. 119th St
  Sun., 1-5; Mon & Wed., Noon-7; Tue. & Thu., 10-5; Fri. & Sat., 10-5

Woodson Library is a very convenient location that is very accessible not only by car, also by public transit, however, I listed other nearby libraries where you can drop off your mail-in ballot. According to the Chicago Board of Elections you have until Nov 2, 2020 to drop them off at those early voting sites and at a drop off sites at a Chicago library.

Also on Election Day while polls are open from 6 AM to 7 PM you can also drop off your mail in ballot:

• ELECTION DAY ONLY - Nov. 3 - 6 am-7 pm
  United Center, 1901 W Madison
  Wrigley Field, Gallagher Way Gate outside the ball park, near Clark Street
  Guaranteed Rate Field, on Shields Avenue just north of 35th Street

This is how U.U. closed their elections posts using a quote from the late Congressman John Lewis: "The vote is precious. It's almost sacred, so go out and vote like you never voted before."

Early voting started on Wednesday

We will have a different election than we had in our history so far. This is due to the ongoing pandemic as the rage for now is to vote by mail instead of voting in person or even waiting until Election Day and going to your local precinct which is what I plan to do.

On Oct. 14, 2020 early voting around the city has started. You can register and cast your ballot at designated locations within all 50 wards and at the Loop Super Site located at 191 N. Clark St. or at Clark/Lake.

The location for Ward 9

• Ward 9 - Curtis Elementary School,  32 E 115th St.

These are the operating hours for early voting until Election Day Nov. 3, 2020 for all sites throughout the city and at the Loop Super Site

• Early Voting sites in all 50 Wards - plus the Loop Super Site
  Monday-Friday - 8:30 am-7 pm
  Saturday-Sunday - 9 am-5 pm
  Election Day, Nov. 3 - 6 am-7 pm

Here's a notice from Ward09.com - Ald. Anthony Beale's constituent webpage about the early voting at Curtis Elementary on 115th Street

If you want more information check out the Chicago Board of Elections page on Early Voting.

The Cook County State's Attorney Race

The above flyer I saw taped on a bus shelter on 95th Street Sunday. This is the first time I've seen such an accusation although if the State's Attorney is unpopular amongst some parts of the electorate it's due to her offices handling of the Jussie Smollett affair - Smollett formerly starred in the popular TV series Empire had allegedly engaged in a hoax claiming racists wearing a Make America Great Again ballcap had assaulted him.

Regardless Foxx easily won the Democrat primary in March even if it was affected by the coronavirus. And she does have a Republican opponent and I mentioned that in passing on Twitter as Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara noted the Republican opponent during his appearance on FOX News Channel.

#IngrahamAngle I hate to say it John Catanzara, but I doubt most of Chicago or Cook County knows who Kim Foxx's Republican opponent is. Who is he? Where is he?

— The Sixth Ward (@TheSixthWard) July 22, 2020

I found this article from March 2020 discussing the Republican opponent Pat O'Brien a former judge who was elected as such as a Democrat in 2006

After cruising through the GOP primary Tuesday, O’Brien outlined his plans to beat incumbent Democrat Kim Foxx in a live-streamed news conference, thanking his family, friends and “everyone who voted against Kim Foxx.”

“We really have to clean up the mess that she’s made,” O’Brien said, not even a minute into his remarks. “I think we have to restore justice to the community. We have to make it safer for people in all of the kinds of activities that they do, and we have to remember that the state’s attorney’s duty is to protect the victims of crime.”
...
O’Brien said he’s taken a hard look at the state’s attorneys office, and while he sees Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case as “a violation of oath and a lack of integrity” he said the office is “under producing in other areas.”

The former judge said that under Foxx’s administration, fewer than 200 jury trials have been held in 15 felony courtrooms, which works out to less than four trials per courtroom each year. He said that from the 1980s until the first decade of this century that number was much higher. He also said Foxx has “lost more trials and gun cases than she’s won in each of the three years” and called for quicker trials.

This article noted that it's been almost 25 since a Republican had been elected Cook County State's Attorney. I vaguely remember him, he was a man named Jack O'Malley. Perhaps some of you remember those "Back Jack" political ads from back in the day.

Either way, 2020 has proven to be an odd year in a variety of ways. We got this pandemic and this unrest over racial injustice. I thought Trump could be re-elected President and right now he's limping because of those two ongoing crises. Perhaps a Republican could win the State's Attorneys office this year.

However, Cook County seemed to have trended more and more Democrat over the years and since O'Brien seems to have hardly campaigned since his primary I don't see a change in Cook County. Then again who knows time will tell..