Reminder: 2026 Midterm Elections in 60 Days!
Election Updates:
Early Voting starts September 24th! See Early Voting locations and times here at the Champaign County Clerk and Recorder's Website.
Illinois Public Media 2026 Candidate Interviews: in collaboration with the NAACP Champaign County Branch and the LWV of Champaign County.
LWV Local Candidate Guide: available through Vote411.
Reminder for the Next Election (It may be sooner than you think!): Municipal and many other local elections such as school board elections will be occurring early in 2027. The process to getting on that ballot has already begun. See the 2027 Abbreviated Election Calendar for more key dates and deadlines!
City of Champaign:
The City Council passed two major policy frameworks at their August 18th meeting:
Enacting a policy based on the Housing Needs Analysis and Strategy
I’m still looking into the changes made to the zoning code which the City Council replaced at the September 1st meeting.
There is a continuing campaign to get City support and funding towards a Champaign County Reparations Commission. This is being led by the CU Reparations Coalition.
Earlier last month there was a controversial special use permit that the City Council failed to approve for a commissary kitchen for local food trucks and catering business needs. The commissary kitchen would have been located in the North End and there was local pushback on that location. Approval required a supermajority vote, but the measure only had a simple majority in support.
Unit 4:
The Board of Education approved a ballot referendum on bonds towards new middle schools and other facilities improvements. This is following the findings and presentation of the facilities committee. The consent agenda also included details on repairing the Kenwood playground recently damaged in a fire.
There was a great deal of public participation at the August 17th Board of Education meeting, especially in regards to the implementation of the new enforcement process for residency and district boundaries.
- WCIA had coverage of some of the new registration struggles families were facing this year, including a statement from the districts chief communications officer.
- Fox Illinois' coverage included a statement from Board President Tony Bruno.
Superintendent Ponce put out a public statement on the district’s appreciation of NAACP Champaign County Branch President Pearson and the NAACP's work towards addressing and resolving the registration issues moving forward. She also spoke at the August 17th meeting. Superintendent's statement from an email sent to the district after that meeting:
There's been continued calls for school board seats by sub-district in Unit 4, as opposed to only at-large members for the entire district. Smile Politely's Editorial Board appeared to give cautious support to the idea, noting that "we have seen how the neighborhood sub-district model hasn’t always worked for Urbana."
City of Urbana:
Grace Wilkins announced her resignation a couple months ago and that became official on August 24th The City of Urbana is now accepting applications for the vacancy, to be appointed by Mayor DeShawn Williams. The deadline for applying is 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 11, 2026. Residency and other requirements are listed on the application page here.
Last month’s political action report noted that there had been some audio issues with the City Council meetings. The technology team for the City found a workaround to avoid interruptions to livestreaming. There are still no real-time adjustments for some sound issues, but significant discrepancies can be adjusted afterward for the streaming / recording. There had been an announcement that council, board, and commission meetings would no longer be livestreamed due to those issues, but that appeared to have been released prematurely given the workaround.
