Months after immigration enforcement upended her neighborhood, Little Village resident Alex Cortez said the experience of Operation Midway Blitz motivated her to vote on Tuesday morning.
Cortez had voted in previous presidential elections but had never participated in other elections. Now, she said, she realizes that every election, including midterm elections, matters.
Rather than wait and hope for change, Cortez decided to take action, casting her ballot in her first midterm election.
“It’s been very difficult,” said Cortez, 35. “What the [Trump] administration did was traumatic and it hurt our community.”
On Sept. 8, 2025, the Trump administration launched the deportation campaign that brought hundreds of federal agents to the Chicago area and resulted in nearly 4,000 arrests.
Cortez was among the first voters to cast a ballot Tuesday morning at Madero Middle School, 3202 W. 28th St., as Chicagoans headed to the polls for the 2026 general election.
As of Tuesday evening, the Chicago Board of Elections reported that 335,745 voters cast ballots in person, which is expected to surpass the 2022 voter participation numbers once the final numbers are finalized, officials said.
Of Chicago’s 1,565,133 active registered voters, 211,657 cast in-person ballots during early voting, which began last month, and 109,215 returned mail-in ballots by Monday night, according to board representative Julie Metea.
Metea indicated that “we certainly are on track to surpass” the 2022 election voter participation numbers, which had a total of 714,789 votes, or 46% of the registered voters, and possibly the 2018 general election that had 912,061 total votes or 60% of the registered voters.
“We more than doubled the early voting number than we had during the primary election,” Metea said.
Cortez said the effects of the administration’s immigration enforcement actions were not the only challenges facing her community. She said residents were also struggling with rising costs, and she hoped to see more resources for local schools and efforts to reduce street gang violence.
“I came out here and cast my vote for those who can’t,” Cortez said. “Now we just have to hope for the best.”
Sandra Arechar said she has also noticed changes in the neighborhood over the past two years, including less foot traffic, fewer street vendors and local businesses struggling to stay afloat.
“I feel like there’s a lot of hate right now, especially towards our [Latino] community,” said Arechar, 44, of Little Village. “I just want to make a difference.”
Arechar said she left the polls hopeful that those elected Tuesday would work to keep families together and provide support to people in need.
“People are just trying to make a living and provide for their families, but it’s hard to do that right now,” said Arechar.
In McKinley Park, middle school social studies teacher Evelyn Martinez walked away from the polls feeling hopeful about the future.
Martinez, 25, was among the first in line to vote at McKinley Park Library. She described voting as “nonnegotiable” and said she hoped the election would bring changes to support children’s education and improve people’s lives. She also said she wanted to see a balance of power at every level of government.
“The Constitution says that we are the ones who grant the power to the government, and I think that is an action that recently feels like it has been forgotten because lately it doesn’t feel like the people have power,” she said.
Janira Clark, a South Evanston resident and Democratic Party of Evanston volunteer, pointed to rising living costs and federal policy overhauls as major concerns. Clark, 42, said her student loan payments, which used to be $350 monthly, rose to $500 per month this year.
She also highlighted inflation as an increasing worry.
“Even if inflation slows down, I’m like 15% in the hole, you know? We’re all behind,” Clark said. “The people I’ve spoken to — that really is their strongest motivator … cable’s gone up, phone bills have gone up, everything is bad.”
Edison Park resident Jori Smith, 40, took the day off from her job in health analytics to be at the Ebinger Elementary School polling location to campaign for Ed Bannon, who is running for reelection to the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education in District 1a.
A mother to three children, two of whom attend Ebinger, Smith said she has worked with the school and Bannon to address flooding at the athletic fields that parents jokingly referred to as the “twin lakes of Ebinger.”
After raising the issue with school leadership and CPS officials, Smith said a new track was installed.
“So as a parent, I said, ‘What can I do to help?’” she said of her decision to volunteer for Bannon’s campaign and distribute flyers. “I love this community, and I love the support of how he wants to put students first.”