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Elections pro and con
Nov. 2nd, 2010 04:03 pmIn Illinois, we elect our judges. Circuit court (trial level) judges are initially elected on a partisan ballot, and thereafter are on a retention ballot. There are nearly 300 circuit judges in my county (Cook), and 66 of them were on the ballot for retention. It is impossible for anyone to know their qualifications. The bar associations make recommendations, and every cycle I review those and decide who I'll vote to retain and who I'll vote to remove. It's a pain and it takes forever (oh, okay, twenty minutes or so, but still) to vote the ballot.
Downstate, there is an appalling campaign of lies against one of the Supreme Court justices, funded by corporations who, of course, don't reveal themselves, but use a phony, high-sounding name. It's disgusting.
Because of the tight races for governor and U.S. Senator, this election has seen some of the vilest, falsest campaign advertising it has ever been my misfortune to be exposed to. And the robocalls! Ugh. I was home over the weekend, and at about the fifth call I got so pissed off that I went to the organization's website and dashed off an email saying that if I ever got another robocall from them I'd vote for the other guy. (Not that I really would, because I do support the person on whose behalf they were calling, but I was really annoyed.) To the group's credit, they emailed me back the next day, apologizing and saying they'd remove my number from their call list.
We use optical scan ballots here, and when I went to vote, the gentleman at the polls wanted to be sure I knew how they worked, and demonstrated on a sample ballot. I don't know who created that ballot, but it was a hoot! At the top of the ballot, Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas, followed by Everett McKinley Dirksen* vs. Adlai Stevenson. Further down, one race was dominated by blues singers, another by architects. I wish I could have voted that ballot!
My Italian instructor became an American citizen recently, and voted for the first time here in this election. She compared the process quite favorably to that in Italy. She was so proud and happy to have been able to vote. I have never taken this for granted, it makes me mad when people don't vote and then complain, but this really brought it home to me.
So if you are reading this and haven't voted yet, go vote. If you have, good for you!
* a very fine Republican senator from Illinois, famous for his gravelly voice. Listen to him talk about the drafting of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Downstate, there is an appalling campaign of lies against one of the Supreme Court justices, funded by corporations who, of course, don't reveal themselves, but use a phony, high-sounding name. It's disgusting.
Because of the tight races for governor and U.S. Senator, this election has seen some of the vilest, falsest campaign advertising it has ever been my misfortune to be exposed to. And the robocalls! Ugh. I was home over the weekend, and at about the fifth call I got so pissed off that I went to the organization's website and dashed off an email saying that if I ever got another robocall from them I'd vote for the other guy. (Not that I really would, because I do support the person on whose behalf they were calling, but I was really annoyed.) To the group's credit, they emailed me back the next day, apologizing and saying they'd remove my number from their call list.
We use optical scan ballots here, and when I went to vote, the gentleman at the polls wanted to be sure I knew how they worked, and demonstrated on a sample ballot. I don't know who created that ballot, but it was a hoot! At the top of the ballot, Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas, followed by Everett McKinley Dirksen* vs. Adlai Stevenson. Further down, one race was dominated by blues singers, another by architects. I wish I could have voted that ballot!
My Italian instructor became an American citizen recently, and voted for the first time here in this election. She compared the process quite favorably to that in Italy. She was so proud and happy to have been able to vote. I have never taken this for granted, it makes me mad when people don't vote and then complain, but this really brought it home to me.
So if you are reading this and haven't voted yet, go vote. If you have, good for you!
* a very fine Republican senator from Illinois, famous for his gravelly voice. Listen to him talk about the drafting of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
