Evanston 2024 Election Guide: What's On the Ballot, What To Know

EVANSTON, IL — Election Day is nearly here as voting for the 2024 general election in Evanston comes to an end Tuesday.

Eligible voters who have yet to register may do so in person while casting a ballot Tuesday, although early voting site with grace period registration also offer the opportunity to register and vote in one fell swoop.

The Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., offers early voting and grace period registration, with weekday hours extended until 7 p.m. starting on Oct. 28.

While the closest and most consequential race on the ballot is expected to be the presidential contest between former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris, there are several other races on the ballot in Evanston.

In the Illinois General Assembly, incumbent Democratic State Rep. Robyn Gabel, who became majority leader of the Illinois House last year, faces her second challenge from Republican attorney Charles Hutchinson in the 18th District, which includes most of Evanston as well as New Trier Township.

Hutchinson is an attorney who chairs the Wilmette Historical Preservation Commission and resigned from leadership of the local chamber of commerce after endorsing Northwestern University's controversial Ryan Field.

In the 17th District, which includes a portion of northwest Evanston, incumbent Democratic State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz faces a challenge from Republican Jim Geldermann, president of a software company and digital ministry leader at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Glenview.

Though Gong-Gershowitz narrowly won her seat in 2018 with the help of longtime Illinois Democratic political boss Mike Madigan, who is currently on tried in federal criminal court, she became the 19th House Democrat to publicly break with the "velvet hammer," declaring she would not support him for another term as House Speaker in January 2021. A week later he stepped aside.

There are three statewide advisory questions — non-binding referendums sometimes used by Illinois politicians to block citizen-led initiatives from appearing on the ballot or to otherwise buttress their policies — on the ballot.

This year, the questions ask whether insurance plans should cover assisted reproductive treatments if they cover pregnancy, if a 3% tax on incomes over $1 million should fund property tax relief and if candidates should face penalties for interfering with election workers. Illinois lawmakers put them on the ballot in May through Senate Bill 2412, which also changed the rules for slating candidates that a judge later found to be unconstitutional.

In Cook Countywide races, there are four seats on Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board up for grabs — a trio of six-year terms and the final two years of another.

For the six-year terms, incumbent board president Kari Steele (D), a chemist, environmentalist and real estate broker, seeks reelection after more than a decade on the board. Marcelino Garcia, who has been a commissioner since 2018 and is also community affairs director at Cook County Health, and newcomer Sharon Waller, an environmental engineer and principal at Sustainable Systems, round out the Democratic Party's ticket. Republican candidates Claire Connelly, Richard F. Dale and Brendan Ehlers, and Toneal Jackson of the Green Party, are also on the ballot.

And for the MWRD’s unexpired 2-year term, Precious Brady-Davis, appointed in 2023 and a director with the Sierra Club, looks to fend off a challenge from Republican R. Cary Capparelli, who runs a motorsports marketing and management company and teaches geography online for South Dakota State University.

In the race for Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court, Mariyana Spyropoulos, an incumbent MWRD commissioner and former Cook County assistant state’s attorney, defeated in the Democratic primary the incumbent court clerk, Iris Martinez, whose promises to reform the notoriously ineffective and poorly managed court clerk office never materialized.

Spyropoulos is up against Lupe Aguirre, a real estate attorney and police officer who previously campaigned for Cook County sheriff, and Libertarian Michael Murphy, who brings a background in IT.

To decide who will succeed Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, former appellate judge Eileen O’Neill Burke, who won the nomination by a razor-thin margin, is running as the Democratic nominee against Republican Bob Fioretti, a former 2nd Ward alderman, and Libertarian candidate Andrew Charles Kopinski, a suburban attorney and accountant.

And voters also must decide who will serve out the rest of the Karen Yarbrough's term as Cook County Clerk. Yarbrough, who had been clerk since 2018, died in April at the age of 73.

Monica Gordon, 5th District Cook County commissioner, is the Democratic Party's pick. She faces off against Michelle Pennington, a Republican and real estate firm partner, and Libertarian Christopher Laurent, chair of Chicago’s 14th Police District Council.

In the 9th Congressional District, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky faces Republican Marine Vet Seth Cohen in her bid for 14th term in the House of Representatives, having only once failed to collect more than 70 percent of the vote.