As the Nov. 8 Representative election starts to loom around the corner, having been declared a state holiday in 2020, many new voters at DGS seek to make their voices heard amid a growing number of campaign ads, PSAs and heated discussions. In doing so, they are faced with navigating an entirely new process: voting and registration.

There are many options available to prospective voters for registration: they can register for free at the school, the DMV or even online at vote411.org or ova.elections.il.gov. Additionally, voting itself can be done both via mail in ballots or in person in just a couple of seconds, as explained by AP government teacher Laura Rodey.

“In Illinois, anyone can do mail-in voting. They are also running early in-person voting. So, now I think there are three big options in Illinois: (1) “normal” in-person voting on Election Day; (2) mail-in voting; and (3) early in-person voting,” Rodey said.

To register to vote either by mail or in person, one can go to www.elections.il.gov/ and fill out the form, or find the nearest voting area. This website even offers services for finding one’s elected officials, and news releases for voting.

Some students, however, express concerns over being misinformed–often citing the limited amount of time they have. As such, to stay informed, Rodey suggests the use of sources like www.ballotpedia.org, which can give at-a-glance credible information on candidates and policy issues.

“The first thing I think someone should do is pull the sample ballot for the upcoming election. I usually go to the official DuPage Election site, but other sites will do this for you. This will help the person know what races are happening and who the candidates are. From there, some of the sites [ for example: Ballotpedia] give you a profile of each candidate along with their positions on various topics. I also recommend people do a Google News search for the candidate to see what types of things that person is involved in, saying, etc.,” Rodey said.

One soon-to-be voter, senior Tommy Yednock, argues that now more than ever, representation in the house is of utmost importance and that those elections possess the potential to have the greatest impact on the state of the country–going so far as to call them more important than presidential elections.

“I find that representative elections, because those are based purely on the voters, are the most important to furthering our social progression…that’s where the decisions for the states[are made] and the decisions for the state are very important, ” Yednock said.