Can you find your sample ballot? If not, call your county Democratic Party and tell them they

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

dropped the ball. Why do they expect people to vote down ballot if they don't stress the importance of doing so? Judges matter a lot! I looked at 2008 down ballot drop off in the two national races in Illinois. While 6.4 million voted in the presidential race, the drop off for Senate was astronomical: 1.3 million fewer, that's a 20% drop off. The implications down the ballot are simply mind boggling. And the Dem Party only laments that turnout is low and Dems don't turnout for midterms. That's it. That's all the Democratic Party has come up with to combat down ballot drop off and low mid-term turnout.

Has the Democratic Party ever considered that when people feel (1) overwhelmed and (2) ignorant they are inclined to get up and leave?

Kudos to the Cook County Democratic Party for doing the minimum and putting this together, but even then, I had to go find it. Early voting began weeks ago. This should have been sent to me prior to the beginning of early voting.

[frazzled]

1. Sample ballot vs Party Endorsement ballot

What you are illustrating is not a sample ballot. It's the recommendations of the Cook County Democrats.
A sample ballot is the full list of names you will see on your ballot when you enter the voting booth for the Democratic Primary. You can get it at the Chicago Board of Elections website (if you live in Chicago), and type in your name and address.

I do look at the Cook County Dems endorsements. But I don't rely on it 100% to make my choices. I cross-reference each race (even all the judicial races) by looking at:

— candidate bios (on their on websites or on other sites, such as Chicago Tonight--it has some great candidate info, and videos of them made for their "free time" candidate talks on that show)

— newspaper endorsements and endorsements from interest groups

— judicial ratings: http://www.voteforjudges.org/wp-content/uploads/2016-Primary-Election-Worksheet-4.pdf

It takes a few hours to do all this, but I then feel pretty secure about my choices on these down-ticket races. Mostly, my research has led me to choose almost all the names the party has endorsed. But a few I may cross them on.
One is for Clerk of the Circuit Court. Now we all want Dorothy Brown out of that office, but the party is endorsing a candidate who is current alderman for the 8th ward. She may be ok, but we kind of know this has been a spot that serves largely as a patronage position. There's another candidate running who appears well qualified: first, he is a lawyer of 25 years, and has an interest in making the courts more functional and transparent so that lawyers and defendants are better able to present their cases. Second, he's Latino, a huge group in this county that is ill-represented in government; third, he runs a nonprofit gay rights organization that has been active on a number of fronts. He was endorsed by the Sun-Times. I think I'd like to vote for him, but I worry that if I do, I will split the anti-Dorothy Brown opposition, and the office will return to her! I'm a little stuck here.

I also have a question on two of the judges after reading ratings. It probably won't matter much.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

2. I'm happy for you but this isn't about you.

Sophisticated voters won't find this thread remotely helpful. I knew this in advance so I loaded it up with operative words "overwhelmed" and "ignorant." You expect unsophisticated voters to sit down for a few hours and study up on each judge' voting record? Lol Democratic Party endorsements are a shit ton better than not voting down ticket FFS. That's the point of the OP. Bring a cheat sheet.