April 1st, commonly known as April Fool’s Day, is this year’s date for the Illinois Consolidated Election. These elections typically do not have a very high voter turnout. This means your vote is even more important. I like to say your vote is worth 6x, since the voter turnout is so low.

Consolidated Elections do not get a great deal of attention, certainly not in comparison to federal and state elections. However, you cannot afford to sit out this election.

As much as we might be grateful for the policy positions and Executive Orders signed by President Donald Trump, we are responsible for those who are in authority in our townships, city councils, and education boards. Do you want to stand against higher taxes? Make sure you get out and vote for the best candidates possible.

For other elections, the Illinois Family Institute does an outstanding job putting together information on state and federal candidates. This is an almost impossible job for Consolidated Elections, however. Illinois has 1,428 townships and 852 public school districts. But we do have something to offer.

We have uploaded questionnaires from candidates running for school boards who returned them. Several thousand were mailed or emailed if we were able to obtain contact information. Click HERE to see if your school district is listed.

So how can you find out who else is on your ballot? The best way is to do some internet searches. For those who happen to live in Cook County, visit this website.

If you are outside of Cook County, you should be able to find out information on who is running on your county website.

For those living in the Chicago suburbs, the best resource I found was with the League of Women Voters. I do not support this organization, but they do present some good information on their website.

I was also able to find some candidates on Facebook and contact them through Messenger. Some questions to ask school board candidates can be found HERE.

Vote against tax increases! Vote against unfunded mandates! Sadly, in some cases, you will find not much choice. But you may be able to find a few candidates who are deserving of your vote and desperately need it to win. So go and cast it!