Welcome Matthews. Some helpful information for you from your Secretary of Forum Affairs, which you may or may not be aware of.
Illinois is the Mideast Region. It is currently in District 2, but will as of the next General election be in District 3 (assuming the expected numbers are adopted). There is an activity requirement of 25 posts in the 56 days preceding an election, and at present you have only 19 posts in the 56 day period preceding the next scheduled election (February 23 18:00 EST - April 20 18:00 EST). You do have enough activity in the last 56 days to vote in a special election if we were holding one now, but since you are not one of our wild and crazy hyper-posters, I thought I'd make you aware of the activity requirement, especially since it should not be difficult to meet.
Thank you for the info, and sorry about the delay in replying, i shall try to be more consistently active