Cook County voters have formally selected permanent replacements for 11 departed circuit court judges and 22 judges assigned to Cook County’s judicial subcircuits - including an ex-law clerk accused of impersonating a judge - casting ballots in judicial elections in early voting and on Election Day, Nov. 8.
The question of whether voters wish to restrict the number of terms some of their elected officials can remain in office received resounding support in the village of Crestwood and the cities of Harvey and Calumet City. And in the village of Broadview, the results of the vote won’t be known until and unless the Illinois Supreme Court weighs in on whether the referendum question passed legal muster.
An incumbent member of the board responsible for reviewing taxpayer appeals of property tax assessments, who billed himself as the sole Republican in Cook County’s property tax determination and appeals process, has secured another four years on that board. On Tuesday, voters reelected Dan Patlak, of Wheeling, to the First District seat on the Cook County Board of Review.
ROCK ISLAND – A conservative group accused of voter suppression has countered with its own claims that county Democrats and the state Attorney General's office are suppressing voter turnout and harassing its vote-by-mail program volunteers.
With an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to not expedite a case looking to block Election Day voter registration come November, voters will be able to register to vote on Nov. 8 right at the polling precinct in some counties of Illinois - a move which could make it easier for those living in more populated areas to vote than other eligible voters living in more rural areas.
Election Day voter registration will be allowed this November at all polling places in Cook County and Illinois’ other more populated counties, after a federal appeals court refused to speed up proceedings in the case, pushing briefing in the matter back to Nov. 10, two days after Election Day.
Saying the law imposes only a “minimal inconvenience" on voters living in low population counties who wish to register to vote on Election Day when compared to the benefits of expanding voting opportunities in counties with more people, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has asked a federal appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s block of a state law allowing Election Day voter registration at polling places in Cook County and other Illinois counties in which more than 100,000 people liv
A federal judge has prohibited Illinois’ most populated counties from continuing to register voters at polling places on Election Day, saying the way the system is currently set up in the state violates the rights of people voting in Illinois’ more rural regions.
Revenue collected in the city of Chicago's Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts will increase 23.9 percent this year, according to a report recently issued by Cook County Clerk David Orr. But it appears that failing neighborhoods that need revitalization the most are not seeing as much benefit from TIF, relative to areas that are already thriving.
While some ideas are moving ahead and others are on the backburner, the concept of reducing the number of the county's elected offices remains a hot topic in Cook County, as supporters believe the reforms could both save money and make the local government more effective by installing the best people for the job, rather than the most popular.
With the presidential election approaching this November, Cook County Clerk David Orr is calling for the state to keep its promise to fund a program to more efficiently keep voter registration records up to date.
CHICAGO – Chicago residents are already grumbling about the likelihood of paying significantly higher property taxes this year, and the bills haven’t even been sent out yet.
A Chicago man, who was among a group of people removed by the Cook County Republican Party from the posts of committeeman purportedly for previously having pulled ballots in Democratic Party primary elections, has sued the party, demanding a judge reinstate him to the position to which he asserts he was lawfully elected in the recent GOP primary election.
Two weeks after his bid to win the Democratic nomination for the Illinois State Senate seat representing several south suburban communities ended in defeat, a Hazel Crest lawyer and local library board member has brought a defamation lawsuit against the incumbent state senator who bested him, claiming a flier allegedly distributed by the incumbent’s reelection campaign went too far.
Cook County voters began the process of electing permanent replacements for 11 departed circuit judges and 16 judges assigned to 10 of Cook County’s judicial subcircuits, casting ballots in the county’s primary election on Tuesday, March 15.
The political campaign for a candidate seeking a seat on the board of commissioners overseeing sewage treatment and stormwater management in Chicago and most of Cook County has been hit with a class action lawsuit, alleging the campaign violated federal law when it placed pre-recorded robocalls to cell phones.
Cook County’s online property tax information system is getting a $30 million upgrade. Plano, Texas-based Tyler Technologies, the company awarded the contract, will create a system to replace the 40-year-old technology currently in place, improving tax collection and public access to property tax-related information, county officials said.
Lawler BarrettThe "every vote counts" saying couldn't be more true for a pair of candidates in a Cook County judicial subcircuit race.As of today, the Cook County Clerk's office continued to count votes in the five-way race for the 15th Subcircuit after Tuesday's Democratic primary failed to produce an obvious winner as the margin separating two candidates was just too close to call.Chris Lawler led