Voting In Oak Forest: Everything You Need To Know

OAK FOREST, IL — Early and mail-in voting shattered records across the country. If Chicago is any indication — early voting sites opened in the city's 50 wards opened on Oct. 14 — be prepared for a long wait at suburban Cook voting sites this presidential election.

Mail-in ballot drop boxes have been installed at all suburban Cook early voting sites. More than 80 percent of American voters will have the opportunity to vote by mail in the Nov. 3 election, by far the most in U.S. history. Absentee voting is allowed for everyone in 34 states, and only six states require an "excuse" other than fear of the coronavirus to vote by mail — Illinois isn't one of them.

Whether you plan to vote by mail or in person, here's everything you need to know about casting your ballot in Oak Forest.

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Find Your Polling Place: If you're voting on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and aren't sure of the location of your polling place, you can find it on the Cook County Clerk's website by entering your address, or call the Oak Forest Clerk's office.

Mail-In Ballot Drop Boxes: The drop boxes will circumvent the USPS as the mail ballots will be securely delivered directly to the clerk's office, according to its website. Voters can drop off their completed mail ballots between 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Mail ballots will be time stamped.

What's On My Ballot?

Depending on where you live in Oak Forest, not every ballot will be the same. You can view your sample ballot by entering your address and information on the county clerk's website.

In addition to voting in presidential, congressional, senatorial and some state and local races, Illinois voters are being asked to vote on the Graduated Income Tax Amendment.

• A "yes" vote supports repealing the state's constitutional requirement that the state personal income tax be a flat rate and instead allow the state to enact legislation for a graduated income tax.
• A "no" vote opposes this constitutional amendment, thus continuing to require that the state personal income tax be a flat rate and prohibit a graduated income tax.

Cook County races include:

• Cook County State's Attorney: Kim Foxx, Patrick 'Pat' O'Brien, or Brian Deenehy
• Clerk of the Circuit Court: Iris Martinez or Barbara Bellar

Cook County Judges

Sixty-two judges are up for retention this fall, including ten candidates are seeking seats on benches for the first time in contested races. Cook County voters will decide on Nov. 6 whether to retain all 59 circuit court judges

• VoteForJudges.org offers non-partisan information on all the judicial candidates. The Chicago Appleseed Fund, the creator of the website, provides research-based evaluations from over a dozen bar associations. VoteForJudges does not endorse judges to retain or not retain.
• VoteForJudges will publish the judicial evaluation results from the bar associations as they become available, and the endorsements from the Chicago Tribune.
• The Chicago Bar Association provides a voter's smart guide of its judicial recommendations and non-recommendations, as well as a phone app to bring into the voting boot
• Illinois Bar Association provides summaries and full judicial evaluations.
• Chicago Council on Lawyers is a non-partisan, public interest bar group. The CCL's evaluations are available now on the Council's website.
• IllinoisJudges.Net is maintained by the Illinois Civil Justice League. The ICJL is a coalition of interests in Illinois, including taxpayers, consumers, small businesses, lawyers, doctors, local governments, big businesses, not-for-profit organizations and individual citizens. The coalition fights what it believes to be abuses to the civil justice system. ICJL includes its own ratings, as well as drawing evaluations from bar associations and newspaper endorsements.
• Injustice Watch, a nonpartisan, nonprofit multimedia journalism organization that exposes institutional failures that obstruct justice in Cook County, has also compiled a 2020 judicial voting guide.

Voters are permitted to bring newspaper endorsements, printouts, sample ballots and smartphones to view judicial evaluations into the voting booth.

Related: Illinois Mail-In Voting: How To Get A Ballot, Drop Box Locations