Most of the spotlight during the 2015 election season has been on the mayoral race, which is understandable given that Rahm Emanuel has pissed a lot of people off during his first term. But if you look beyond the first section on today's ballot, you'll find a medley of non-binding referenda that you probably weren't aware of or prepared for.
Paid leave for emergencies: Chicagoans are a bit sick of having their pay docked during emergencies like a hospital visit or 19 inches of overnight snow. This referendum would demand that all employers in the city to offer paid leave in the event of illness, domestic violence or an emergency school closing.
Required treatment for offenders of domestic violence: This referendum would not apply to all employers in town, but rather the City of Chicago itself. It asks for city workers who commit domestic violence to be required to receive treatment as a condition of continued employment.
New ward boundaries: In 2012, the Chicago City Council did its once-in-a-decade redrawing of ward boundaries. What followed was a bout of good old fashion gerrymandering. The new map drew mayoral candidate Bob Fioretti's residence out of his own ward, and shook up a handful of aldermanic races.
Regulate influence of special interests in campaigns: Rahm Emanuel and company threw together a fortune worth roughly the GDP of Tuvalu to fund this year's campaign, which upset enough people to get a vaguely-worded referendum onto the ballot. It reads: "Should the City of Chicago or the State of Illinois reduce the influence of special interest money in elections by financing campaigns using small contributions from individuals and a limited amount of public money?"
Establish an elected school board (kind of): The CPS school board is currently appointed by the mayor, a policy instituted under Rahm's predecessor. After the teachers strike in 2012 and the sweeping school closings the following year, a lot of Chicagoans were given reason to be upset about the mayor's unabridged power over the city's public school system. However, this referendum is only appearing on ballots in 37 or the city's 50 wards. If passed, the powers that will be aware that most of the registered voters in most of the wards agree that the city should have an elected school board.
Keep petcoke out of the 10th ward: Southeast Side residents are pretty upset about the clouds of black dust that blow off of piles of petroleum coke and into their lungs. The referendum aims to ban storage, handling or transporting of the refinery byproduct in the 10th Ward. The referendum ought go further and require all of the city's petcoke to be shipped directly to Gary like the rest of our icky stuff.