No Kings rallies in Chicago and the northern suburbs have turned opposition to the Trump administration into a campaign for early voting, as ballots become available across the city ahead of the 3 November midterm elections.
Several hundred people gathered in Evanston on Saturday, 17 October, marching with placards and chanting slogans as part of a nationwide day of action organised around the message “Vote Early”. Similar demonstrations were held in Chicago neighbourhoods including Edgewater.
The Chicago Board of Elections has confirmed that early voting will expand to permanent sites in all 50 wards on Monday, 19 October. Voters will also be able to cast ballots at the city’s downtown voting locations before election day.
No Kings rallies urge Chicago voters to take part
At the Evanston event, organisers said protest alone would not bring political change unless it was followed by participation at the ballot box.
“This is a time of mobilisation, between now and November 3rd,” said Susan Seidel of Indivisible Evanston.
The No Kings movement has staged demonstrations across the United States in opposition to the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration. Saturday’s events were promoted as non-partisan efforts to increase turnout and encourage people to vote before election day.
Aisha Davis, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, urged voters not to become discouraged by the political climate.
“We can’t let our country fall by the wayside by feeling so apathetic or so discouraged about what’s going on right now,” she said. “Your voice matters and every vote counts.”
Organisers also used the rallies to highlight the arrival of mail-in ballots and the wider availability of in-person voting. The Chicago Board of Elections says voters may use any early voting site in the city, regardless of their ward.
In Edgewater, a separate rally drew scores of elderly residents from The Breakers retirement high-rise. Patricia Ushijima, one of the protesters, said older people brought the perspective of having lived through previous periods of national upheaval.
“Elders, particularly elders, have wisdom. We have lived through so many atrocities,” she said. “But this, what’s happening in our country, is probably the greatest atrocity I have ever lived through.”
With early voting now available across Chicago and the general election less than three weeks away, speakers at the rallies repeatedly returned to the same appeal: turn political anger into a vote.
