Election Updates

A reminder that early voting has already begun for the March 19th, 2024 primary election. There are local, state, and federal races on the ballot from precinct committeepersons to presidential delegates. This post has an update on write-in and other candidates you may see on your ballot in Champaign County. You can see your sample ballot at the Champaign County Clerk's website here. 

This post follows up on a previous election update that included a link to the League of Women Voters candidate forum for Democratic candidates competing to get on the general election ballot for County Coroner in the fall. 

Write-in and Other Candidates:

Tom Kacich had an overview of some write-in candidates folks may find on their ballot within Champaign County for federal and State races (depending on where they fall in those federal and state districts). The Champaign County Clerk's website has a list of the write-in candidates here if you can't access the News-Gazette article:

• United States Representative 15th District - Kevin A. Gaither (Democratic)
• Illinois State Representative 102nd District - Adam Niemerg (Republican)
• Illinois State Representative 102nd District - Edward "Ed" Blade (Republican)
• Illinois State Representative 102nd District - Jim Acklin (Republican)
• County Board District 8 - Latrina Peete (Republican)
• Precinct Committeeperson City of Champaign 12 - Latrina Peete (Republican)
• Precinct Committeeperson Cunningham 23 - Ronald Vlach (Republican)

You'll notice that there a few local government races with write-in candidates on your ballot too, but only if you live in those particular districts. You can look up which districts you are in and get sample ballots for either party's primary races on the Clerk's website here. There is likely a non-partisan ballot available for folks who live in the Northern Piatt Fire Protection District, where there is a referendum question outside of the party primary races.

The VoteChampaign non-partisan voter guide (a project in collaboration with the local League of Women Voters) has information, questionnaire answers and links to more information on contested races within Champaign County. The Republican primary ballot for a representative in the Illinois 13th Congressional District is contested.  We only cover local government on the Cheat Sheet, but there is other local coverage of federal candidates. For example, the Daily Illini had an overview of the Republican federal congressional primary candidates and and an interview with one of them recently for the 13th District here. Arguably the top contested race at the county level in this primary is on the Democratic ballot between two candidates vying for the coroner's office.

Precinct Committeepersons:

People may notice a number of precinct committee races on their ballots, including a handful contested on both the Republican and Democratic party ballots. These local party positions help choose a party chair and have votes in how the local county parties operate. The major parties tend to be "big tent" organizations with internal competing factions and ideologies.

County Board member Jeff Wilson was on the WDWS program "Penny For Your Thoughts" yesterday (2/29/2024) explaining the importance of these committeeperson seats and how their votes are weighed when voting on a party chair or other local party decisions. This applies to both major parties in Champaign County. The countywide precinct committeeperson makeup can determine if a local party apparatus aligns with certain candidates or more conservative, liberal, or moderate ideological views.

Later in that same interview, Wilson also commented on local election integrity. He addressed a caller's concern that the local system was rigged and argued that people should volunteer to be election judges and watchers to watch how the process works. He pointed to the chain of custody procedures and bipartisan collaboration in the process to ensure votes are fairly processed and counted.