Voting began Thursday in Illinois, 40 days ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. Voters who signed up to receive mail-in ballots received notifications from election authorities, and folks in some jurisdictions could take advantage of in-person early voting opportunities.
My Aug. 29 column urged readers to explore all options in light of uncertainty about the viability of absentee ballots for this cycle, but subsequent court rulings have abated most of those concerns for the time being. That followed a July 30 piece about rapidly changing circumstances in the Wisconsin primary as a cautionary tale for our side of the Cheddar Curtain.
But that zaniness pales in comparison to news out of Missouri this week, where The Associated Press reports the state’s Congressional districts still aren’t firmly established, and the U.S. Supreme Court will get to weigh in for a third time.
It all points back to a question I posed July 11: Wouldn’t we all be better off with some sort of deadline after which any election rule or political map changes can’t apply to an active cycle? It’s always campaign season, but at the point candidates can officially declare for office, they and voters should have as much of a rulebook as possible until final ballots are counted.
WEEKEND READS: Capitol News Illinois this week shared two essential pieces from partner organizations.
Thursday’s headline, from Injustice Watch’s David Jackson, is a remarkable deep dive on “previously unreported misconduct and conflicts of interest by Illinois’ Special Prosecution Unit.” It will be especially interesting to those who have long followed the public career of former La Salle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne. Find it at tinyurl.com/ShadowProsecutors.
Friday’s piece, by Meredith Newman of the Illinois Answers Project, examines how “the state’s slow background check system continues to threaten” access to child care services. It illustrates how enacting laws or creating agencies to solve problems might draw headlines and praise, but what actually matters is if promised solutions materialize. It’s at tinyurl.com/ChildCareAccessIL.
Neither of these are feel-good encounters, but both offer a deeper understanding of the many ways government impedes where it ought to assist.
ON THIS DAY: The first debate between presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon took place in Chicago’s WBBM-TV studios on this day in 1960. The Commission on Presidential Debates (debates.org) has a full transcript, and C-SPAN hosts the entire video (tinyurl.com/NixonKennedyChicago). Little about the actual context resonated specifically with Illinoisans, aside from Kennedy’s two references to Abraham Lincoln, but it’s worth noting the city’s role in hosting the first general election debate, something now taken for granted. Presidential candidates didn’t debate again until 1976, at which point they became a fixture of the American political calendar.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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September 26, 2026 at 10:02AM
