Election Day is almost here, so get informed and get out to vote

About 7 in 10 Americans report feeling anxious and frustrated about the 2024 presidential election, a new AP/National Opinion Research Center poll found. And judging by the many letters we've received from readers in recent weeks, plenty of Chicago-area residents are among that group.

It's no wonder: Every day brings fresh news of assaults on voting and our democratic institutions as the nation heads to Tuesday's election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Ballot drop boxes have been set on fire. Fact-checking can't keep up with election misinformation flooding X and other social media. Election officials across the country are boosting security because of violent threats.

Voter purges that removed U.S. citizens from voting rolls are continuing, after a recent ruling from the Supreme Court. Trump's campaign has already made false claims of "voter fraud."

Officials from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have warned about the increasing threat of election-related violence, including calls for a civil war, from domestic extremists who believe conspiracy theories about the election, according to a report from The Hill.

The next president will clearly have much work ahead to build up our democracy after such a fraught, contentious, divisive election season. Doing so will take integrity, a dedication to America's core principles and strong leadership skills.

Voters get that: In a recent YouGov poll that asked Americans to rate the importance of various traits in a president, respondents rated traits such as leadership, decision-making ability, honesty, mental health and vision for the country's future as much more important than policy positions and political skills.

Our readers, in letter after letter, echo that sentiment. Here's what a reader from Deerfield wrote: "As we come closer and closer to Nov. 5 with early voting already in process, I find myself becoming more and more terrified about the outcome of the election. ... The leader of the free world should be an honest, serious, intelligent, honorable individual who stands for the principles upon which our country was founded."

And from a reader from Schaumburg: "Regardless of how you feel about the respective parties, look at the people who are running for president. Vote for the best person. Vote for the one who has the best heart and character. ... Our country's future hangs in the balance."

We agree and urge every registered voter to make his or her voice heard on Nov. 5, if they have not already done so during early voting.

As a 501(c) 3, the Sun-Times discontinued making endorsements in presidential and other political races in 2022. But as a nonprofit, we believe it's important to give voters some highlights of what to expect from a Harris or Trump administration on some of the issues that affect Illinois and Chicago.

The economy

In poll after poll, the economy ranks high on the list of voter concerns.

Trump's economic plan is based largely on extending his 2017 tax cuts, which favored the wealthy and played a significant role in the growth of the national debt, and imposing tariffs on nearly all imported goods. He's also talked about getting rid of taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security.

Despite what Trump has said, foreign countries do not pay tariffs. Consumers do, by way of higher prices for imported goods, be it a new school uniform for a child or a new car to replace a broken-down clunker.

And Illinois — along with its neighbors Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin — is among the 11 states that would be hit hardest by tariffs, because imports make up a larger share of the economy in these states, according to the Tax Policy Center.

Tariffs "are most consequential to the economies of states in the Midwest and South because those are the states where imports total the largest share of GDP," the TPC researchers wrote in a report.

Harris's economic plan includes pressing Congress to roll back some tax cuts for the wealthy; raising the minimum corporate tax rate; enacting a permanent child tax credit of $3,600 per child, up from $2,000; enacting a new child tax credit of up to $6,000 for middle- and lower-income families with a child under age 1; and raising the earned income tax credit for low- and moderate-income workers without dependents.

Harris, like Trump, has also suggested ending federal income taxes on tips; that's something that would likely have little beneficial impact since most tipped workers don’t earn enough to pay income tax in any case, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. Harris has also said she would enact a controversial federal ban on price-gouging on food and groceries; some states already ban such price-gouging.

In late October, 23 Nobel Prize-winning economists signed an open letter calling Harris's overall plan "vastly better for the economy."

Reproductive rights

Millions of American women, especially those under 30, are focused on abortion and reproductive rights during this election and increasingly motivated to vote because of that, a recent survey by KFF found. Reproductive freedom is especially critical here in Illinois, which has had an influx of out-of-state patients since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Harris, who has made reproductive rights a centerpiece of her campaign, says she'll have her pen ready to sign a bill to restore reproductive autonomy nationwide. She supports a repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which limits federal spending on abortions to cases of rape, incest or life-threatening pregnancies And her campaign has cited cases in which women who have suffered miscarriages faced obstacles to getting emergency care due to abortion bans.

Trump, who has boasted about getting Roe overturned, recently said he would veto a national abortion ban if he takes office again. He has continued the false claim that abortion-rights supporters favor "execution of the baby after birth."

Then there's Project 2025, the conservative policy initiative to remake the federal government that is seen as something of a blueprint for a second Trump administration. It includes a number of proposals to further restrict reproductive rights. Among them: restricting access to mifepristone, the drug most commonly used in medication abortion regimens; rescinding federal guidelines stating that women who need abortion care due to an emergency are entitled to it, even in states where abortion is banned; and making it easier for employers to exclude coverage of contraception from health insurance plans.

Immigration

There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., many of whom have been living and working here for decades. That number includes some 425,000 people in Illinois.

Trump's immigration plan focuses on deporting all of them, in what would be the largest such program in American history.

Deporting just 1 million people in a year would cost more than $88 billion, according to an October report from the nonprofit American Immigration Council. And deporting millions of factory workers, farm workers and folks in the hospitality industry — sectors in which many undocumented people work — could upend the economy. Workers would be lost, as well as an estimated $76.1 billion in state and local tax revenue and an estimated $256.8 billion a year in after-tax spending power, the Immigration Council said.

Harris proposes to revive the bipartisan bill the Biden-Harris administration worked out with Congress earlier this year to reduce illegal crossings at the southern border. The bill would have made it tougher to seek asylum in the U.S. Some lawmakers say the current system is being exploited — passing the initial screening is relatively easy, and asylum seekers end up settling in the U.S. while their cases are investigated. Yet most are denied asylum years later and end up staying in the U.S. as undocumented.

The bipartisan proposal also would have put more money toward U.S. Customs and Border Protection, for asylum officers, immigration judges and technology at the border; and would have allowed the Department of Homeland Security to close the border when the average number of daily crossings surpassed 4,000 for a week. The bill died after Trump urged Republicans not to support it, in order to keep the issue alive during the presidential campaign.

Gun safety

Gun violence is a perennial issue in our city, and the flow of firearms from neighboring Indiana and other states — which must be tackled at the federal level — helps fuel the violence.

Harris, who has said she owns a gun, proposes to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; require universal background checks; and support "red flag" laws aimed at limiting access to guns by people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

Trump, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in May, has not made any specific policy proposals on gun safety.

More issues are at stake Nov. 5, of course, in addition to these four.

There are the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. How the next president handles America's role in both is deeply important — to large communities of Jews, Palestinian Americans, Muslims and Ukrainian Americans in the Chicago area, as well as to other Americans who support those communities.

There's the environment. America and the rest of the world faces dire consequences from unchecked, human-driven global warming. For our future's sake, the next president must listen to science; work with other countries to avert the worst effects of climate change; and stand up to fossil fuel interests that work to stymie the necessary move to clean, renewable energy.

We could name any number of other issues. The bottom line is this:

If you're feeling anxious about Election Day, you're not alone. Take action, by getting informed — and getting out to vote.

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