What is a Township? Townships are a local unit of government. In Illinois, Counties are divided into precincts, with the exception of Cook County which is divided into 30 Suburban Townships and the City of Chicago which is further divided into 50 wards, all of which are then further divided into precincts.
So in typical confusing Illinois fashion, Wards in Chicago and the Townships in suburban Cook County are roughly equal to County Precincts everywhere else in the state.
Suburban Townships harken back to the days when there were large unincorporated, primarily rural areas that were not administered by cites, villages, or towns. The growing urbanization and expanding authority of municipal governments and school districts has made the government functions of Cook County Townships largely redundant or unnecessary.
Townships now mainly serve as the basic political building blocks of Cook County and their functions are mirrored by Ward organizations in the city of Chicago.
Township party organizations like the Evanston GOP are the grassroots of politics in Illinois. Township organizations are headed by a committeeman (or woman) elected for 4 year terms in the primary election. The committeeman serves with no salary, and their duties include: candidate recruitment and selection, serving and selecting the county organization chairman, and selecting the state’s party leadership. Township organizations and committeemen are also responsible for recruiting and appointing Election Judges and Equipment Managers to work with the County Board of Elections and staff the poling places and early voting locations for all local State and Federal elections.
In addition to these functions townships also serve to connect voters with their political parties, providing voting and candidate information, voter registration, and the general how, when and where of voting and running for office. They do this through precinct captains who are usually the closest point of contact between individual voters and the parties. They also work with local campaigns, organizing volunteers, events, forums, debates, and voter outreach.
