What’s an election cost? How much for your vote?
Apologies. Sorry. Mea culpa.
This editor completely misjudged the registered voters of Lee and Whiteside counties.
In last week’s column, we estimated voter turnout at a paltry 25 percent for Tuesday’s primary election.
We were wrong. By a lot.
The turnout actually was a pathetic 14 percent for Whiteside County, 18 percent for Lee County.
Where were all those mad-as-heck people who were not going to take it anymore? Why didn’t that rage against the establishment political machine translate into action at the polls? They waiting for November?
But, hey, it snowed Tuesday! About an inch.
Who can be expected to fight those conditions to exercise the right to participate in our democracy?
We’ll know better next time.
YOU MIGHT recall this editor said last week that the primary election was a waste of time and money.
So, what did you – Mr. and Ms. Taxpayer – shell out for this exercise in party politics that’s disguised as representative government?
Based on the election budget figures from the county clerks, Lee County taxpayers paid about $27 for each of the 4,535 people who cast a ballot in the primary. In Whiteside County, the cost was only about $23.50 apiece for the 5,626 voters.
Between the two counties, that primary election bill was more than $250,000.
Did you get your money’s worth?
Surely there is a better way to spend a quarter of a million dollars in the Sauk Valley.
WE NEED TO correct some election news that we reported – for a few hours Tuesday morning – on saukvalley.com.
To make it perfectly clear, nobody was elected to public office on Tuesday.
We implied in a story published online that Michael Harn, who won the Republican nomination for Ogle County sheriff, would take office in November because there was no Democratic candidate on the primary election ballot.
Not so fast.
Democrats, Republicans and Green party officials still may draft candidates to fill ballot vacancies for the Nov. 2 general election.
Those candidates have until April 5 to file their petitions with the county clerk.
Write-in candidates – whose names do not appear on the ballot – also may file their candidacies with the county clerk until Sept. 2.
While it might be unlikely that many – if any – of those ballot vacancies will be filled, that possibility does exist.
Until those filing deadlines pass, hold off on the big celebrations.
WE COUNT 10 vacancies on both the Democratic and Republican ballots in Whiteside County for Nov. 2.
In Lee County, Democrats have more than 20 open ballot spots. The Republican ballot has only one vacancy: one of those obscure “regional superintendent of schools” jobs that ought to be eliminated in a reorganization of government at all levels in Illinois.
If those positions are on the ballot at all, why are they not nonpartisan? Should education be so politicized?
And judges, both circuit and appellate – why are those partisan posts? Aren’t judges, you know, supposed to be neutral?
The answer to those oddities seems to be: Sorry, this is Illinois.
Considering the state is unable to pay its bills and is virtually bankrupt, could there be a better time to reform government from the top down – all the way down?
SPEAKING OF judges ...
Some readers of the Gazette were bothered that their Monday paper this week had a sticky note on the front page that said, “Elect Trish Joyce for Circuit Judge.”
That was an advertisement, paid for like any other ad. That one just happened to be stuck to the front page.
A similar ad was stuck to the front of last Saturday’s weekend edition. Except that one was selling car tires, not a candidate.
The sticky-note advertising option is available to virtually anyone. (Call the ad department today for rates!)
Glenn called because he was disturbed by something that Monday’s ad said: “You do NOT need to be a Democrat to vote for me. Just request a Democratic ballot on February 2nd!”
Glenn’s assessment was simple: “That’s communistic!”
Well, probably not. But that’s how the primary election in Illinois – and many other states – works. Regardless of your voting history, you can vote either a Democratic or Republican ballot (or Green Party!) in the primary election.
Perfectly legal.
And maybe the ad helped. Ms. Joyce, of Sterling, won 63 percent of the vote in her home county.
But she lost the race for the Democratic nomination in the multicounty 14th Judicial Circuit when votes in Henry, Mercer and Rock Island counties were counted.
HAVING TO STATE a “party preference” to vote a ballot in the primary was, no doubt, responsible for keeping many people away from the polls on Tuesday.
The voting system could be set up to allow each voter – privately in the voting booth – to choose which ballot he prefers, and then vote it. That way, it truly is a secret ballot.
But then, political parties would have a hard time figuring out who was a Republican and who was a Democrat.
And they couldn’t easily create a mailing list of people likely to vote Democratic or Republican.
Which means you couldn’t be targeted by one party or the other for their campaign mailings to fill up your mailbox or those “robo calls” that jam up your voice mail.
But then, maybe you would get twice as much junk campaign mail and bothersome calls because the candidates wouldn’t know whether to target you as a D or an R.
It would be worth the trade-off for a truly secret ballot.
JUST A FEW more thoughts about this past week’s election, and then we’ll give it a rest.
That awful February primary election has another downside: 9 months of campaigning before the November election. A nice May or June primary cuts the campaign time (and expense) considerably.
If people wanted a direct primary election, wouldn’t they take advantage of it? What does it tell us that of those citizens who bother to register to vote, only a small percentage bother with a primary election?
One in seven registered voters in Whiteside County voted in this primary; two of every 11 voters in Lee County cast a ballot.
And think of all the eligible residents who are not even registered to vote.
Let’s give the nomination process back to the political parties.
The rest of us, obviously, don’t want it.
