PROTECTING VOTERS IN CHICAGO’S LSC ELECTIONS

Last week, voters cast their ballots for candidates to serve on Local School Councils (LSCs), the important decision-making bodies that select principals, allocate funding, and monitor school improvement plans at every Chicago public school. Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights set up a voter protection hotline and trained non-partisan pollwatchers to monitor these elections and help ensure voter access for historically disenfranchised communities. 

Over two days of voting, we fielded about 50 calls and assisted many voters who needed help to cast their ballots. Our advocates answered calls from 7am until 7pm during last Wednesday’s elementary school elections and during last Thursday’s high school elections. For the first time in response to COVID-19, Chicago Public Schools offered vote-by-mail to some voters, causing a lot of confusion for voters who didn’t get clear instructions, didn’t receive ballots, or received bad information. We heard about late-opening polling places, inadequate signage, misprinted ballots, and voters who were improperly turned away by election judges. Language access issues occurred at many schools that predominantly served students of color and low-income learners. At some polling sites, voters felt intimidated because teachers and school security staff were serving as election judges, a violation of CPS LSC election procedures that led to specific concerns about electioneering and improper handling of ballots.

Ultimately, many of the problems that voters reported to our hotline could have been easily prevented through better planning and preparation from CPS. Weeks before the election, our organization advocated alongside the LSCs 4 All Coalition for CPS to make numerous changes for a safer and more accessible election. CPS agreed to make some positive changes, such as extending the deadline for receipt of mail-in ballots. But most of the issues we identified went unaddressed.

One of the big alarms we raised was CPS’ lack of due process for voters to correct their ballots. CPS’ policy is to discount mail-in ballots if the names on their envelopes do not exactly match the names on CPS’ voter list. However, voters were never instructed that their printed names will be subject to an exact match. Such rejections for mechanical reasons would be unfair. CPS did not provide a way for people to ask whether their ballot was counted, and those voters have no opportunity to correct a rejected envelope. We fear that many votes could be thrown out for this reason and at no fault of the voters. Many LSC elections will be close and every vote matters.

LSC elections have big consequences for racial equity in our education system. For example this summer, LSCs voted on whether to pull police officers (called School Resource Officers) from their campuses, after school districts across the country terminated their contracts with local police following the George Floyd uprisings. A total of 17 schools ultimately voted to remove police, but community members at many Chicago schools are still seeking change. 

LSC elections are also hyper-democratic and hyperlocal; they are based on school zones, and noncitizens are eligible to vote. In a city without an elected school board, LSCs are a vitally important representative voice for school communities. Elected LSC members will take their seats on January 10, 2021 for 18-month terms.

We will continue advocating alongside our community partners to ensure that every vote counts in these elections. You can read more about this week’s LSC elections in Chalkbeat Chicago and on Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education’s resource page.