Thursday, Sept. 24 is the first day that Illinois registered voters can cast a ballot in the 2026 elections, and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Moline) wants as many people as possible to vote early.
“We need to remind our neighbors that tomorrow in Illinois is Election Day. It's not November 3rd. November 3rd is the last day to vote,” he said Wednesday in a press conference at Martin Luther King Center, Rock Island. The first day of early voting in Iowa is Oct. 14 (early voting has begun in Minnesota, Virginia and Vermont).
“Elections are being questioned, they're being scrutinized, hate is being spewed, allegations are made, and without any real truth, it all spirals out of control,” Sorensen said, noting his mother worked as an election judge and his current next-door neighbor is a mail carrier.
“Earlier this year, the Brennan Center surveyed more than 800 local officials, and nearly a third said that they have been threatened, harassed, abused, and nearly 3 in 4 worry that false information online is making their jobs more dangerous,” he said. “And there is a threat closer to home. It's the mail.”
Thanks to the Rock Island County Clerk’s office, Sorenson said: “I have no doubt that things are going to go off without a hitch. But that's right here. I believe that we should be making voting easier to do for American citizens. We should allow people a free day off from work to go and vote. We should be opening up opportunities for Americans to take part, not making it harder. And we should be doing more to make sure that people cannot tamper with a vote that has been cast.”
“I believe that this is more than just about Election Day, because no matter where we are, we need to make sure that our voices are heard,” he said. “Because when we use our voices, we're sending a message to people at every level. (Elected officials) don't work for corporate donors. You don't work for a wannabe king. You don't work for just the powerful and the well-connected. You work for me. That's what we all need to be saying to everyone.”
Sorensen equated Election Day with Tax Day, April 15th.
“Think of that as being the last day that you have to do the most important thing,” he said. “We all have the power to change the trajectory of our nation if we believe that that's what we need to do. The decision is up to each and every one of us. I'll be here to talk with anybody who wants to. Make sure you get out and vote, and know that on April 15th, when you have to pay that tax bill, as long as I'm in Congress, I'm going to work to get that money back for you.”
Because midterms usually produce much lower voter turnout than presidential elections, that points to the importance of early voting, Sorensen noted.
“Because there's going to be a lot of people in this district that have to work on a Tuesday. They can't go and vote, or when they get off of work, they're picking up their kids from daycare,” he said. “And then they've got to get home and feed their families. They don't have time in their busy day. They're doing everything right to go and vote, so they may miss out…Don't wait till November 3rd to vote. You want to go get that done now. So that you have participated, you have done something to change the trajectory.”
“So the number-one way to make sure that your ballot will be counted is to physically vote in person or physically put that into the box downtown,” Sorensen said of the county drop box.
“In the state of Illinois, we have integrity in our mail system, right? I know that because John's my next-door neighbor. I trust him, but then also going forward, that may not be the case in other states.”
Voter turnout needs to be high “because we need to be able to say that what this administration is doing is failing us here at home,” he said. “We need to be able to say that we are number one here because we're doing everything right. We need the president and the administration to do everything right, too. But I do worry about other states. What happens in the state of Iowa?”
Nationally, just over half of eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2018 midterms (which was the highest since 1914), and that number dropped to 46.4% in the 2022 midterms. In 2018, 57% of Illinois eligible voters voted, including 51% in Rock Island County. In the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, over 70% of eligible voters voted in the county and state; and in 2022, 57.7% of Rock Island County voters did (that year 51% of Illinois voters did).
In 2024, more than half of all 155 million voters who cast a ballot (85 million), did so in advance of Election Day.
Restoring trust in elections
Kai Swanson, Rock Island County Board member (and host of The Conversation on WVIK), on Wednesday quoted George Jean Nathan from a century ago (as editor of the American Spectator magazine): “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who don't vote.” Swanson encouraged people to check their registration status at Vote.org.
“Voting is terribly important, but there's another part of that when good people are kept from voting, and that's why we're here today,” he said noting claims of widespread voter fraud are unsupported by evidence. Of the 62 court challenges to the fairness of the 2020 presidential election, none were upheld, Swanson said.
“It's all part though of a plan to erode our confidence in the elections. And I'm very sad to say that a political party in Rock Island County organized its own Stop the Steal march on January 6th, 2021,” he said. “Election systems are protected by multiple safeguards, and this disinformation not only fuels lawsuits, it intimidates election officials and implies political interference.”
False allegations erode confidence in “the bedrock of our system,” Swanson said. “Our system is based on trust, and so we have to encourage with our colleagues and our fellow voters that they vote.”
If people are unsure if their mail-in ballot will be counted, he said they can drop it off at a drop box at the Rock Island County building, 1504 3rd Ave., Rock Island.
“The other thing I want you to do is if you hear any candidate who wants your vote, I want you to ask them, was the 2020 presidential election fairly adjudicated? And if they say no, this means they side with untruth,” Swanson said. “This means their relationship with truth is suspect. Do not vote for anyone who tells you the 2020 presidential election was not fair, was rigged. Because it wasn't, and we've had 5 years of court cases to prove that it was not.”
Bringing power back to regular people
Olivia Dorothy, an East Moline alderman, who works as an environmental advocate, said: “The working class and lower-income people understand what's at stake if we continue to let billionaires run our country. The trickle-down economic policies that have defined this and other administrations for decades have done nothing more than consolidate wealth and left workers in the dust,” she said.
“We see that in East Moline, where 21% of the 2,500 Tyson plant employees call home. Tyson’s CEO and shareholders raked in record profits as they destroyed the lives of many in our community.
“It's time for a change, and the only way to force change is to vote, vote, vote,” Dorothy said. “I see every day the consequences of corporate greed and the billionaire class that are in power right now. Climate change and pollution hurt low-income and working-class people and families the most.”
“We struggle to find indoor activities for our kids when the smoke is too heavy from wildfires that are thousands of miles away. We struggle to afford groceries like eggs because the desiccated federal agencies can't respond to outbreaks of disease on farms,” she said. “And we struggle to afford gas for our cars just to make it to work on time. And when you and I struggle, the billionaires make money. So we need change. And that change starts with your vote.
“Because polluted air can't vote. Toxic drinking water can't vote. Dying pollinators, they can't vote,” Dorothy said. “But you can. You can vote. You can vote for a better government that holds companies and billionaires accountable when they exploit workers, poison our air and water, and jeopardize our food.”
“We need people who understand our needs, because when we elect workers, they get the job done,” she said. “And if this administration or any other— anyone else wants to threaten and intimidate our voters in Illinois, bring it on. So get out and vote. Take your friends out to vote. Take your sweetheart on a voting date. Take your kids with you when you go vote.”
The foundation of democracy
“The right to vote is a foundation upon which every other right in our democracy depends,” said Bonnie Ballard, president of the Rock Island County NAACP. “For generations, Americans fought, marched, organized, went to jail, and in some cases gave their lives so that every citizen, regardless of race, color, income, gender, or zip code, could have a voice in determining who governs and how we are governed.
“Across the country, we are also seeing renewed battles over congressional maps, voter registration, mail voting, voter roll maintenance, and access to the ballot,” she said. “But our response cannot be fear. Our response must be participation. Our response must be organization. And our response must be the vote.
“The NAACP has always understood that political power begins with an informed and engaged electorate. We do not tell people who to vote for. We tell people something much more important,” Ballard noted. “Use your voice. Study the issues. Examine the candidates. Understand what is at stake and vote. Because elections have consequences.
"The people we elect makes decisions about our schools, our jobs, our healthcare, our taxes, our neighborhoods, our criminal justice system, our civil rights, and the opportunities available to our children and grandchildren," she said. "Voting is therefore not something we should think about only during a presidential election. Every election matters. Every office matters. Every ballot matters.”
“One of the greatest threats to democracy is not simply voter suppression, it is voter resignation, meaning the belief that nothing will change, that one vote does not matter, or that participating is pointless,” she said. “We reject that belief. History tells us differently. Our votes have changed laws. Our votes have changed school boards. Our votes have changed city councils. Our votes have changed state legislatures. Our votes have changed Congress.
"And our votes have changed America. The NAACP has announced an unprecedented national voter mobilization effort for the 2026 midterm elections because the organization recognizes the importance of this moment.”
“On November 3rd, let us honor those who fought for this right,” Ballard said. “Not simply by remembering their sacrifice, but by exercising the right they fought to secure. Register, get informed, help someone else get to the polls, and vote. Because opening the doors of democracy means very little if we do not walk through the doors.”
Trust in the Postal Service
Winston Purchase, president of the Illinois State Association of Letter Carriers, noted the Supreme Court recently rejected the Trump administration’s plan for the Postal Service to carry out parts of a new order on mail-in voting, but the justices left in place a ruling by a federal judge in Boston that bars the Postal Service from implementing aspects of the executive order.
“The U.S. Postal Service is the most trusted federal agency, and I assure you it is safe to vote by mail,” he said. “I would suggest upon receipt of your mail-in ballot that you vote immediately. If you have doubts about your mail service, you can drop your mail-in ballots off at your designated polling place. Last election, nearly 90 million eligible voters did not vote.”
“These are some of the same voters, non-voters that are complaining about high fuel costs, high utilities, high food costs, high clothing and shoes,” Purchase noted. “It is an honor to represent the letter carriers of Illinois, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that your ballots are delivered whether it be sun, rain, sleet, or snow, or in Chicago, all four of them at the same time.”
Robert Peterson, a Rock Island disability advocate, said: “It is my duty to say that as a person with a developmental disability and as a person receiving services, I deserve to vote, and so does everyone else with a disability.”
Sorensen took out his Congressional ID card, which he uses to vote and showed it to Peterson (who spoke from his wheelchair).
“When this card goes in, I'm voting for you. A lot of people think that when I go and I vote, that it's just my opinion that matters. But it's not. I'm voting for 735,000 people every time this card goes into the machine,” Sorensen said. “And we need more members of Congress to realize that. But then every member of Congress needs to meet people and get to know and become friends with Robert, I've been friends with you. I was able to be with him in the rotunda underneath the Capitol in Washington, D.C. It was one of the greatest days of my life.”
“Basically all I'm saying is that our rights as a person with a disability is all being taken away by this administration,” Peterson said.
Chances of flipping House and Senate
Sorensen is not sure what his party’s chances of flipping the House and Senate to Democratic control.
“I think if there's 3 things that we can do, no matter if you are in Kansas, if you're in Rock Island, Illinois, or if you're in the Bronx, it's fighting corruption, it's lowering your costs, and it's keeping money in your pocket,” he said. “Because those aren't necessarily Democratic or Republican issues. Those are American things. That's what we as Democrats are fighting for today.”
“As we get the majority in the House and hopefully the Senate, first and foremost, we've got to show the American people that we're going to do what they said they wanted us to do. And that's lowering costs and keeping money in their pocket,” Sorensen said. “So into the 120th Congress, that's what we have to do. But I also believe if we do that, it's like laying the train tracks for a presidential race where the presidential candidate is going to say, I'm going to make your life better.”
Talk of possible patrolling of poll places by agents of ICE or the FBI worries him.
“That is a threat to our democracy. We need to make sure that we are going to the polls locked arm in arm with our neighbors and our families, and nobody is going to intimidate us because this is our right and you can't take this right away from us,” Sorensen said.
“But it also means that people could be intimidated, and I think we could get rid of a lot of that intimidation if people actually go and they vote very early, as early as they can. Go down to your polling place. Find out where that polling place is, go do it ahead of time, then there's no way to be intimidated.”
He was also upset that Speaker Mike Johnson recessed Congress until after the election, mainly because Sorenson wanted to take up an impeachment vote on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and reauthorization of the Farm Bill.
“That's shameful. But also, he doesn't want the Farm Bill to come through. I pushed so hard to get E15 year-round ethanol because it's going to positively affect our corn farmers and people at the pump,” Sorensen said. “If we can put a greater percentage of ethanol in, then that's less in foreign oil that we need. So we can lower the price at the pump.”
He also wanted Congress to now take up substantial AI regulation.
“Because AI regulation, we need that because we're building a highway with no guardrails on it. We need to make sure that Congress acts on that because by the time you come back, or worse, when we wait till January, how is the world going to change between now and January?”
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