Chicago 6 Corners

Primary Voting is Tuesday, February 2
Here's a Helpful List of Links for Would-be Voters

By David Shuey (with Mary Kuhn), February 1, 2009

Post-election addendum & results: The quickest list of results I found was at the Sun-Times, so go there. Frankly, my it took me a few minutes to find.

This morning on WBEZ, Toni Preckwinkle, who defeated Todd Stroger and two others to be the Democratic nominee for president of the Cook County Board, mentioned her disappointment with voter turnout – hovering somewhere between 30 to 35 percent. Know what's almost as frustrating? Actually finding results for the smaller races, like those pesky judges. Well, just like my Oscar ballot, I want to know the winners. I don't think I've ever seen complete election results – I'm talking every race – printed or posted anywhere in the past five years. (And as far as my 15-minute search today tells me, they're not.) What I did find was the Sun-Times linking you to this site: the Chicago Election Board of Commissioners for the City of Chicago, which has a "Go" button to bring you to the right race. It's tedious. Play around. See if your judges won. Or your State Central Committeewoman/man. (Hm, broken down by gender – I don't think I knew that.) Ironically, search "Illinois election results" brings you to the official State Board of Elections page – a page that renders no useful information.

Original pre-election post: Okay, I know "nobody votes" during the primaries. But I little bird told me upwards of  20% of the voting population might, so that sounds like somebody, right? I also don't expect this to be an exhaustive, or even straightforward, list of links that eases your voting decision. Chicago and Illinois simply doesn't make it easy. Thanks to Mary Kuhn, who put in the grunt work back in 2008, I'm reprising her helpful voting guide, double-checking the links and adding comments here or there. And I know we're not all soothsayers, but please help our state avoid further transgressions.

1.  Are you registered?  Check your voter registration status at the Board of Elections Commissioners for the City of Chicago site. If you aren't, it is too late to register in Illinois. You still can do so for November's general elections.

2. Print a sample ballot. This makes going to the polls a quick and simple task.  Enter your address here and you can print a sample ballot that will be almost exactly like your ballot when you go to vote.  Mary says, "I mark my sample ballot before I vote, then I mark my selections on my real ballot based on the sample ballot."

3.  Check out endorsements. Endorsements can help you make your decision and mark your sample ballot. Refer to Chicago Tribune (David note: I opted for just their elections page; they're a Republican editorial board, after all, and don't even endorse a Democratic in the gubernatorial race) and Chicago Sun-Times. The Reader recently covered a lot of ground on the elections, from the Cojone-less Cook County race to the Senate battle for Obama's seat. N'Digo has their picks. Chicago Free Press likes Hynes for Governor.

4. Research local candidates & judges (optional). I find the Chicago voter guide to be helpful in researching candidates. Enter your address and the guide will only show you info for your candidates. And find out who those mystery judges really are at VoteforJudges.org.

5. Find your polling place.  We encourage you to VOTE EARLY to avoid complications and long lines. Go to this site for times/locations. If you're skipping this round and voting during the general elections on November 2, go here.

6. Voting Problems? Go to the Illinois Election Incidents Hotsheet and lodge your complaint. It's run by these supposedly non-partisan folks.

Signage of the Times

By James Sandrolini, April 29, 2009 

One needn’t peruse the shrinking daily paper, watch cable news or log into their favorite website to receive the gut-punch that is today’s stark, economic end-times. Possibly the best way to experience our deeply sobering financial zeitgeist is simply to drive around the ever haunted streets of American cities and towns. On this side of the street, signs informing dead-eyed consumers that Everything Must Go!, Prices Slashed! or simply For Lease in place of For Sale. Over there, an optimistic Coming Soon! sign for a business that, like Godot, never arrives. All around us, we know the Big Party of the Reagan/Bush, Sr./Clinton era has crashed to a halt; the hangover is excruciating and the massive bill has come due.        

Only a year or so ago, it seemed like pretty much everything was for sale in the Land of the Free. Super-sized retail chains, giant, monolith condos and thrusting, Freudian skyscrapers pierced U.S. town and city skylines. Gordon Gekko-style, Wall Street uber-capitalism was unquenchable and unstoppable. That was then. These days, with 12 million Americans unemployed, house foreclosures up 81% since early '08 and 1 in 10 Americans on food stamps, few are buying much of anything. Even fewer seem to be buying the hopeful promise of the government economic stimulus package put forth by the hundred-day-old Obama Administration. Meanwhile, the paleolithic Republican Party has no real plan or ideas to counter Team Obama … but that certainly hasn’t stopped the right-wing online juggernaut from barreling full steam ahead like the careening bulls of Pamplona to Obama's dazed toreador.

Don't Be a Baby: VOTE!
A How-to Guide for Chicago Voters

By Mary Kuhn, October 24, 2008

1.  Are you registered?  Check your voter registration status at the Board of Elections Commissioners for the City of Chicago site.  If you aren't, unfortunately it is too late to register in Illinois.

2. Print a sample ballot. This makes going to the polls a quick and simple task.  Enter your address here and you can print a sample ballot that will be almost exactly like your ballot when you go to vote.  I mark my sample ballot before I vote, then I mark my selections on my real ballot based on the sample ballot.

3.  Check out endorsements. Endorsements can help you make your decision and mark your sample ballot. Refer to Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.

4. Research local candidates & judges (optional).  I find the Chicago voter guide to be helpful in researching candidates. Enter your address and the guide will only show you info for your candidates. And find out who those mystery judges really are at VoteforJudges.org.

5. Find your polling place.  We encourage you to VOTE EARLY to avoid complications and long lines.  For early voting until October 30th, see this site for times/locations.  If you are voting on Nov. 4th, you can find your polling place here.

6. VOTE EARLY OR JUST VOTE!  Exercise your fundamental right as a US citizen by voting.

Photo credit: Emily Hippert
About the Photo: Young Chicagoan Simon Cronemeyer exercises his First Amendment rights by expressing support for Barack Obama. Whether or not you agree with Simon, he can't vote for another 17 years, so we think you should.

Swing State's Opie & Richie for Obama

By David Shuey, October 24, 2008

This has almost nothing to do with Chicago. Still, Ron Howard's reprisal of Richie Cunningham (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and Opie Taylor (Mayberry, North Carolina) begs for quick dissemination. Would the Governator Ahnuld Schwarzenegger bring back Conan or The Terminator for McCain? Doubtful. In time for Halloween, here's the year's eeriest plug:

Given the transformation, Ron Howard can probably get away with paying his make-up and hair maestro as much as Sarah Palin's $22,800 stylist.

Chicago’s New May Day Tradition

By Megan Chapman, interviews by Cindy Schaarschmidt, May 16, 2007

The numbers are down, but hopes are up. Over 150,000 marched for immigration reform on May 1, 2007 in downtown Chicago, compared with the 400,000 on May 1, 2006.

Standing on the corner of Dearborn and Jackson, at the edge (or at times in midst) of the forward-marching crowd, a friend and I speculated about the numbers. The police count of 150,000 was already being reported online when we had left our offices. We came up with a variety of hypothetical explanations for why the numbers would be more than halved from one year to the next. The leading explanations were:

(1) People don’t have hope. It’s taking too long to negotiate immigration reform legislation in Congress. Apathy sets in again. We’re not going to change anything.

(2) People do have hope. We’ve already won half the battle – there’s a Democratic Congress, the President is on board and making stump speeches again. It’s just a matter of time. No need to skip work.

(3) Reaction motivates more than pro-action. Last year’s House Bill 4437 struck a chord amongst immigrant communities and advocates. And, frankly, most sane, humanitarian-minded folk. While recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids have been dramatic and threatening, they do not motivate the same fervent reaction as the drastic HR4437 enforcement measures or the media captivating Minute Men.

(4) Sequels don’t play as well as the originals, at least not in activism.

None of these lines of thought are meant to discount the grand numbers that did turn out to march for miles in the sun and rally in Grant Park. There’s nothing little about 150,000 (plus) bodies. Ask anyone who has tried to organize an anti-war march or a Sudan rally … or an anti-immigrant march, for that matter.