FOIA Gras Election Coverage Schedule

I'm going to fill your inbox for 2 weeks 🗳️

I discovered this year that I hate writing about elections. I had big plans to cover all the municipal elections but I’ve mostly punted on it. For one, I didn’t anticipate how much gossip I’d receive in my inbox. I love gossip as much as the next guy but I just can’t run that kind of content — unless it’s something major, it infringes on my neutrality, is too anonymously sourced, and is very hard for me to write about.

From my time working at BallotReady, I also know that most voters don’t research the election until the night before. A lot of voters literally do their research while in the voting booth (guilty as charged when it comes to the water reclamation positions!).

I’ve been trying to avoid putting too much of this in your mailbox until we’re very close. But now, we’re getting close and here’s the county’s schedule for the upcoming election.

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Posts from Candidates

I’ve offered up the opportunity for all District 65 candidates to make a free post on FOIA Gras. There are no limits on this post, besides the standard stuff that is in my comment policy - no dunking on non-public figures and no posting copyrighted material. I’m not going to edit the content, besides formatting and a short introduction at the top. I offered up 20 time slots for 12 candidates on a first come first serve basis.

The comment section will remain open for all these posts. I hope the candidates can stick around to answer questions in the comment section.

For a lot of reasons (but mostly my ego), I won’t be publicly endorsing any candidates. The questionnaire I’ve written will be published in PDF format on the day before the election.¹ You can read other group’s questionnaires at the below links if you want to catch up:

• Kuumba Evanston Candidate Forum (Kuumba Evanston and Black Sonrise Evanston)

• District 65 School Board Candidate Forum on supporting

  LGBTQ+ Students and families (PFLAG Evanston, Gender Affirming Evanston, and Evanston Pride)

• Evanston Roundtable Videos (Roundtable and League of Women Voters)

• Independent Voters of Illinois - Independent Precinct Organization

If there are other forums, let me know in the comments and I’ll add the links here. I’m not being intentionally exclusionary.

I’m also covering the 3rd and 6th Ward City Council elections, because I think they’re interesting. Each candidate in those elections gets three questions from me, mostly about governance, transparency, or the schools. Those will be posted the weekend before the election.

Here’s the schedule for how candidate postings will arrive in your inbox:

After April 1, I will return to my regularly scheduled programming. I’ve got some good stories in the works on the Healthy Buildings Ordinance, the sale of the City Hall Property on Ridge, District 65’s Holocaust Curriculum, and more!

1. There is an error in my questionnaire regarding the question involving the Geometry curriculum. I’m going to leave it as is for now, but include a note in the final publication.