Elections in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

provide for the election of over 40,000 elected seats across over 6,000 units of government. In a 2020 study, Illinois was ranked as the 4th easiest state for citizens to vote in.

Election system

Elections in Illinois are directly administered by 109 election authorities. Seven

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

each have an election commission as the local election authority only within that municipality. Outside of those, the

county clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

is the local election authority in 100 counties, and 2 counties have a separate

election commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

. The local election authority's tasks include taking voter registration, selecting the polling places, ordering the ballots, training the election judges, overseeing the election itself, and supervising the vote count. The State Board of Elections (SBE) performs certain statewide election functions. Among its functions are providing uniform instructions, forms, and other material to the election authorities; adopting rules consistent with the other election law in Illinois; and approving the

voting machines A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...

allowed for use by election authorities in Illinois. The SBE is also the election authority for accepting candidate petitions and nominations for certain state and national offices and for modifications to the

Constitution of Illinois The Constitution of the State of Illinois is the governing document of the state of Illinois. There have been four Illinois Constitutions; the fourth and current version was adopted in 1970. The current constitution is referred to as the "Constit ...

and other statewide

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

Elections held

Regular elections

There are four types of regular elections in Illinois: the general

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

election and the general election, which occur in even years, and the consolidated primary election and the consolidated election, which occur in odd years. The election day for the general election is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each even year, which is the day usually associated with

election day in the United States Election Day in the United States is the annual day for general elections of Federal government of the United States, federal public officials. It is statutorily set by the U.S. government as "the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November ...

. Its associated general primary election is held on the preceding third Tuesday in March. The election day for the consolidated election is the first Tuesday in April of each odd year, unless that day is during

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...

, in which case the election is the first Tuesday after Passover. Its associated consolidated primary election is held on the preceding last Tuesday in February. The consolidated election was established in 1982; before this, many local governments held separate elections on unrelated days at unrelated places.

Special elections

Illinois statutes limit

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-larges ...

s to specific circumstances, prohibiting all other elections from being held at any other time than for the regular elections.

Vacancies

=United States Congress

= If a seat in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

becomes vacant more than 240 days before the next general election, the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

chooses a date within 180 days and issues a

writ of election A writ of election is a writ issued ordering the holding of an election. In Commonwealth countries writs are the usual mechanism by which general elections are called and are issued by the head of state or their representative. In the United S ...

to hold a special election on the chosen day for that congressional district.

Election judges

Illinois high school student election judges

High school students in many states across the country are permitted to serve as

election judge An election official, election officer, election judge, election clerk, or poll worker is an official responsible for the proper and orderly voting at polling stations. Depending on the country or jurisdiction, election officials may be identified ...

s (poll workers) in their states, even when the students are not yet old enough to vote. In the 41 states that allow high school students to serve as election judges, the laws typically allow for students to work if they are 16 years of age and in good academic standing at their schools. Specific requirements vary from state to state. Some states do not allow high school students to serve as election judges, or the law has no specific provisions for persons who are not yet eligible to vote. The following states permit high school students to serve as election judges: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The State of Illinois, specifically Chicago, has a robust model. Chicago's contingencies of student judges are the largest in the country. Illinois law provided that students meet the following criteria to serve as Election Judges: * Be a high school junior or senior in good standing; * Have a grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale; * Be a U.S. citizen by Election Day; * Be able to read, write, and speak English; * Successfully complete a 4-hour training session; * Be able to work on Election Day beginning at 5 a.m. until all duties are completed after the polls close; * Be recommended by his/her high school principal; * Have the written approval of his/her parent or legal guardian., There is no minimum age requirement to serve as a student election judge in Illinois. A maximum of two high school students, 1 from each party, may serve in each precinct. In the City of Chicago, a partnership between the Chicago Board of Elections and Mikva Challenge, a non-partisan civic engagement organization, has contributed to the Election Board leading the nation in the utilization of student judges.Mikva Challenge
; organization website; .

References

External links

Illinois State Board of Elections
— official website
Illinois Online Voter Application Website
— official website: allows voter registration, registration status lookup, and polling place lookup * * {{Illinois Government of Illinois Political events in Illinois