We Have More Questions for CPS about Next Week's Elections
The Local School Council (LSC) elections for Chicago Public Schools will take place next week, on November 18 for elementary schools and November 19 for high schools.
As part of the LSCs 4 All Coalition, advocates with Chicago Lawyers’ Committee have sent multiple letters to CPS demanding reforms to ensure that the elections will be free, accessible, and fair. While CPS agreed to implement some important changes, there are still several problems and questions remaining for parents and community members.
Art by Acacia Rodriguez (@bbkashe)
Our coalition summed these up in a letter sent to CPS on Wednesday, November 11, including:
CPS must offer ways to verify whether a mail-in ballot has been received and counted, and notify voters whose ballots have been rejected with an opportunity to correct their ballots.
CPS should ensure that pollwatching credentials are distributed to candidates and civic organizations in a timely fashion, and offer pollwatchers the same ability to observe the ballot box and voting as in previous elections.
CPS should be transparent about when in-person and mail-in ballots will be counted, and how the ballots will be handled before and during the counting process.
CPS should extend the deadline for post-election challenges to at least a week, as in past elections. The current deadline is only 48 hours after votes are tallied.