Voter Registration
A process 27 days before the next election.
What is register to vote?
Register to Vote Online
In Illinois, you can do this online, by mail, as well as in person at your county election authority. You can also process this at your local IL driver license office when you apply for a new driver's license.
What is a 10-year term?
At the expiration of that term, the Illinois Supreme Court justice must stand for a retention election under specific rules requiring the justice to run uncontested. However, to remain on the court, the justice must receive 60% of the vote in favor of retention.
http://illinoisjudges.law.northwestern.edu/qualifications.html
What is Springfield?
https://statesymbolsusa.org/place/illinois/capitals-cities-towns/springfield
What are the Democratic and Republican political parties?
What is 1965?
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, with Martin Luther King Jr.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act
Groups of people who are not allowed to vote in the majority of US States.
Who are incarcerated people?
Who are felons?
People in prison and those whom have been convicted of felony crimes, in majority of US states, are unable to vote; however, this trend is changing in the direction that their voting rights will be reinstated one day.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/felon-voting-rights.aspx
Judicial qualifications for Illinois judges.
A judge at any level must be:
1. A citizen of the United States
2. An attorney licensed to practice in Illinois,
3. A resident of the district or circuit to which the judge is appointed or elected.
http://illinoisjudges.law.northwestern.edu/qualifications.html
What is the Republican Party?
Bruce Rauner is the 42nd and current Governor of Illinois, serving since January 12, 2015.
The first African-American to vote in an election under the 15th Amendment.
Who is Thomas Mundy Peterson?
Thomas Mundy Peterson also became the first black man to hold an elected office. He became a delegate to the republican convention. As a registered voter, he was the first black man to serve on a jury.
An election held for members of political parties to nominate candidates for the general election and elect party officers.
What is a primary?
In the early twentieth century there was a movement to give more power to citizens in the selection of candidates for the party's nomination. The primary election developed from this reform movement. In a primary election, registered voters may participate in choosing the candidate for the party's nomination by voting through secret ballot, as in a general election.
The current Illinois Attorney General.
Who is Lisa Madigan?
Lisa Madigan is the attorney general of Illinois. Madigan became the first woman to serve in that office when she was elected on Nov. 5, 2002. She was elected to her third term in 2010.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/politics-government/lisa-madigan-PEPLT007452-topic.html
This American politician is a U.S. Representative from the Illinois 7th congressional district, elected in 1996.
Fun Fact: He also attended Chicago State University.
Who is Danny K. Davis?
Davis is a Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Progressive Caucus, and Democratic Socialists of America. Davis was one of 31 U.S. Representatives who voted against counting the electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 presidential election.
The "Tea Party" is a far right wing element of this party.
What is the Republican Party?
The Tea Party movement, a conservative populist social and political movement emerged in 2009 in the United States, generally opposing excessive taxation and government intervention in the private sector while supporting stronger immigration controls.
First African-American major party candidate for president.
Who is Shirley Chisholm?
Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress, sought the Democratic nomination in 1972 as the first black woman to run for president.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95828537
The four requirements to vote in the state of Illinois.
1. Be a U.S. citizen.
2. Be a resident of Illinois for at least 30 days.
3. Be at least 18 years old.
4. NOT be registered to vote in another state.
The trial courts of the federal court system.
What are District Courts?
This is where federal cases are tried, where witnesses testify, and federal juries serve. There are 94 federal district courts in the United States.
http://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/court-role-and-structure
The current Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.
Who is Michael Madigan?
Madigan is the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United States, having held the position for all but two years since 1983. He has been a member of the Illinois House since 1971, representing the 22nd District, a majority Hispanic area surrounding Midway Airport in Chicago's Southwest Side.
What is Cook County?
More than half of Hillary Clinton's 2.9 million Illinois votes came from Cook County, with most of her remainder drawing from the other highly populated counties. And while President-elect Donald Trump won 91 of the state’s 102 counties, that was not enough to turn Illinois red like its neighbors.
The trend of highly populated places voting Democratic and the surrounding, less populated areas voting Republican was a pattern repeated across the country.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/data/ct-illinois-president-results-20161108-htmlstory.html
A landmark 2013 United States Supreme Court case regarding the unconstitutionality of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Section 5, which requires certain states and local governments to obtain federal preclearance before implementing any changes to their voting laws or practices; and Section 4(b), which contains the coverage formula that determines which jurisdictions are subjected to preclearance based on their histories of discrimination in voting.
What is Shelby v. Horder?
Who is Crystal Mason?
What is voting while on felony supervision in Texas?
She had only recently been released from federal prison for a 2012 tax fraud conviction. She was still on community supervision at the time of the election — but no one, including her probation officer, St. John said, ever told her that being a felon on supervision meant she couldn’t vote under Texas law.
Practices to emphasize the way crime harms relationships in the community and brings together the people most impacted by the crime to repair the harm.
What is Restorative Justice Community Court?
The Circuit Court of Cook County launched a new approach to address nonviolent crime with the opening of its first-ever Restorative Justice Community Court in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood.
The number of Illinois House Representatives.
What is 118 representatives?
The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House consists of 118 representatives elected from individual legislative districts for two-year terms with no limits; redistricted every 10 years, based on the 2010 U.S. census each representative represents approximately 108,734 people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_House_of_Representatives#Members
The Green Party, Libertarian Party, and Communist Party USA?
What is a third party?
Third party is a term used in the United States for American political parties other than the Republican and Democratic parties.
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-political-third-parties-currently-active-in-the-united-states.php
The impact that the Voting Rights Act had on Blacks' ability to vote.
The act banned the use of literacy tests, provided for federal oversight of voter registration in areas where less than 50 percent of the non-white population had not registered to vote, and authorized the U.S. attorney general to investigate the use of poll taxes in state and local elections.
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/voting-rights-act