Voting guide for 2024 General Election, provided by United Faculty of the UPI at UIS
Voting as a Student at UIS
If you are an American citizen aged 18 or over, you have a civic duty to vote. Even if you do not like the presidential candidates and will not vote for any of them, there are down-ballot elections that also matter. Do you know about the judges, the county board, and the voter ballot initiatives? This page gives you information about voting.
- UIS Voting Guide. The university provides this page. It has almost all the information you would need.
- Register online to vote in Illinois. However, if the date of the election is quite soon, you will need to register to vote in person.
- To register to vote in person: Students at UIS can register during any Voter Registration Event hosted on campus. Dates and times will be listed on UIS Connection or you can register on campus at the Volunteer Center, Union 103 by making an appointment with Connie Komnick (217-206-7828). Additionally, you can register at a county clerk’s office, the Board of Elections Office, city and village offices, township offices, with precinct committeemen, and at schools, public libraries or military recruitment Offices.
- Find out where you should vote if you vote in person (in Illinois).
- But, what if you are a student from another state? The most important thing to remember is that you must not vote in both your home state and Illinois. You can only vote in one place. You can find information for students from Indiana, and Wisconsin, and Missouri.
- General information about voting as a college student is provided by Vote.com, the All In Challenge, and Vote America.
- Information about candidates is provided from some nonpartisan sources such as VoteSmart, Ballotpedia, and the League of Women Voters. Generally, you just enter your street address, and lists of candidates and elected officials will appear, and you can click on the politicians and candidates to learn about their biographies and their positions on issues.
- What about judges? Ballots frequently ask you to vote for judges or vote to retain judges. The Illinois State Bar Association makes recommendations on judges based on surveys of lawyers who have worked with judges. Just enter your county and get a list of judges you may see on your ballot.
- Sample ballots? If you know your address (in Illinois), this link will take you to a sample ballot.
- If you know the name of a politician, you can look up who donates to candidates (for the U.S. President, Senate, and House of Representatives) at the Federal Election Commission, and at Open Secrets (click on the link for candidates and office holders)
Staying informed:
Some of the sources that do not use paywalls and provide information (sometimes biased or partisan information) about elections and candidates in Illinois and candidates might include:
Chris Miller (Capitol Fax)
National Public Radio (for Illinois State poltics, try the State Week program), and programs it offers such as The 21st Show and Statewide.
The Guardian is a liberal-to-radical newspaper out of the United Kingdom that does not use a paywall (but will constantly beg you for donations).
ProPublica is a non-profit investigative journalism source. Go to the Illinois ProPublica site for local stories.
The Illinois Times covers local news in Springfield.
The Associated Press has a reputation as a factual and non-biased source, as does Reuters.
A variety of YouTubers and TikTok Personalities cover news, but they typically offer a highly partisan or ideological framework for understanding the news. This is sometimes an advantage, as their reporting may be more critical or investigative. They may also have specialized expertise in a narrow range of subjects or topics. However, the quality of their information and the biases they bring to their reporting means that you must be cautious in using such sources.
