ILVOTE Blog

August 19, 2021 Neighbors Who Vote - Southside Voter Update by Julia Kline

Hey Neighbors,

A lot has been happening with Neighbors Who Vote and the ILVOTE coalition!

We have a number of voter registration events coming up over the next 6 weeks - please check out the schedule if you'd like to volunteer. We also need a volunteer (or a couple) to help us create digital content. I've got tons of photos, but they need to be posted in more places - and it all just takes time and effort. Reply to this email if you'd like to help in that area.

Lollapalooza!!

It turned out not to be a super-spreader event; so we're extra excited that we registered between 15 and 60 new voters! (Some of them were online signups that we can't track precisely)

Ballot-Z is a member of the ILVOTE coalition; and they staffed a table all day, for 4 days straight, during Lolla!!! Gretchen Coleman, the founder of Ballot-Z, Susan Beal & Tina Brady Pettis volunteered at our table at Ogilvie Train Station.

Check out pictures from Lollapalooza on TikTok or on the ILVOTE events page.

We have a website now!!

It's https://ILVOTE.us. It aims to be a central hub where you can find all kinds of helpful information:

• up to date, accurate information about how to register and how to vote in Illinois (we're still editing - anyone wanna help??)

• information about how to become a Deputy Voter Registrar through ILVOTE

• bios and contact information for leaders in the voter registration movement statewide (would you like to be added as a leader? Just let me know!)

• And of course, it's a collection of all the voter registration events happening in the area

MORE EVENTS!!

Children's Home and Aid Backpack Giveaway

We did our table at Children's Home and Aid Backpack Giveaway last weekend, with help from Indivisible Chicago-Southside members. Thank you to volunteers Sarah Lincoln, Peyton Walker, Cassandra Bogan, Teri Watkins, Tina Brady Pettis and Julia Kline. Alderperson Lopez made an appearance at the event. Check out more pics here.

Deadline for Democracy - Logan Square

Indivisible Chicago invited ILVOTE to do a voter registration table at their Deadline for Democracy event in Logan Square on July 10th. So Neighbors Who Vote teamed up with League of Women Voters. Additionally in attendance were folks from ALSO, Chicago Women Take Action and a number of other organizations. Attendees included Melanie Norstrom, Sarah Lincoln, Julia Kline , Sara Knizhnik, Renato Mariotti, Donna Gutman.

John Lewis Vigil - Downtown

While we're lucky to have very progressive voting laws here in Illinois, the same is not true around the country. Neighbors Who Vote and Ballot-Z showed up at the John Lewis Vigil to support Rainbow Push, Chicago Women Take Action, the League of Women Voters and a number of other organizations as we dedicated the new art installation by Maxwell Emcays. Father Pfleger led us in prayer. In attendance: Tina Brady Pettis, Julia Kline, Catherine Mardikes, Donna Gutman, Betsy Rubin, Sarah Lincoln, Gretchen Coleman, Shruti Agarwal, Steven Dornbusch Go here to see LOTS more pics of this event!

COALITION BUILDING

The ILVOTE coalition is growing!! And that happens by getting out in the community and talking to other folks who are doing this work.

Case in point, I got invited to a breakfast and press conference with Jesse Jackson and Rainbow Push a couple weeks ago, on the anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act. There I met with folks from Chicago Women Take Action, the National Council of Jewish Women, Common Cause Illinois and of course the League of Women Voters. In attendance: Lance Gough, Catherine Mardikes, Jane Ruby, Julia Kline Mary Gardner, Carole Levine

Indivisible Chicago-Southside has been hosting social events at The Nile every Thursday at 7:30pm (they're having one tonight - LMK if you'd like to come!). On this occasion, we were joined by Kirby Bigans, one of the people running to unseat Bobby Rush in the 1st District.

Another of Rush's challengers, the one with perhaps the most name recognition, is Jahmal Cole. His campaign kickoff event at The Silver Room was fire! (Yes, the same Silver Room where we're having a voter registration event on September 28th!) Also in attendance: Kena Perry, Julia Kline

And this isn't even everything we've been up to! Check out more pics on the website to see it all.

And hey - have you followed us on Twitter yet?? :-)

What about on TikTok?

Finally, if you want to help us with social media and digital content stuff, please reach out!!

We can do this!!

Julia Kline

Neighbors Who Vote