After the election, and how a winner lost big

PEORIA -- Republicans lost big in central Illinois elections, calling into question whether all the huge signs, TV ads, mailed propaganda masked as newspapers and other campaign tactics were a gigantic waste of money.

Cong. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, won his gerrymandered 18th District against a worthy opponent who had no funding.  But Schock's huge campaign kitty took a big hit, if campaign disclosure reports show, as expected, that he financed the campaigns of all those losing Republicans.

It was a bold move to take over Peoria for the GOP, and it failed. Voters aren't as dumb as some thought. They didn't fall for the big money behind inexperienced sacrificial lambs set up as candidates, touting lame issues.

Schock may be able to win a gerrymandered congressional district, but influencing the broader regions is a horse of a very different color.

So much for Schock's ambitions to run for the next higher office, senator or governor. His political instincts are wrong for Illinois. A pretty face and a fat campaign bank account won't cut it.

Meanwhile, in the trenches, my friend Clare Howard and I were poll watchers, wearing two hats, as part of the NAACP-ACLU coalition to stop voter suppression, and checking off names of voters for the Democrats so their partisans could be contacted to vote.

Here is Clare's report:

Voting at Tri-County Urban League was steady through the morning with rarely any lines forming but few periods when no one was walking through the doors. Maybe it was the widely publicized opportunity for early voting that made election day easy.

We had young, first-time voters and seasoned 82-year olds who know the process. The newbies were steered toward an endless video that reviewed the process, and they were praised for “doing something important.” 

 I’m concerned with the number of people who had moved recently and were not on the register of voters at the Urban League’s precinct 10. One of the election judges would invariably help them determine their correct polling place and give them directions to that location. Who knows if these prospective voters had the time before work and could follow-up and go to another polling place.

 There were no problems with our three machines.

 It was great to see families with adult kids voting with their parents. Joy Allen, who had voted early, accompanied her son Julien who was a first-time voter. She watched him go through the process. Several judges called to her and asked about her mother. Doing well at 91, Joy reported of her mother Elise Allen, founder and publisher of Peoria’s oldest Black newspaper,  The Traveler.  

 -- Clare Howard

Here is my report: I checked into the Madison Golf Course Clubhouse at 6 a.m., to find people already waiting to vote.  This area is mixed in every way, from mansions on Moss Avenue to tiny working class homes in the valley.  So there was a diverse mix of voters, rich and poor, old and young, and many people of color. 

The election judges were top notch --and easily handled any problems, including a Republican poll watcher who got somewhat agresssive at times leaving her seat behind the judges and complaining about what was happening.

They threatened to have her expelled for interfering with voting, so she backed down.  I have no idea what she had been told to do.  She seemed well meaning but confused about her role as observer, not participant.

Many people appeared using walkers and had a difficult time negotiating the starts or walking a long distance to the ramp at the back door. I kept wondering why they didn't do absentee ballots or vote early at a more acccessible site.

To their credit, they struggled to vote and did so.

Many voters needed help with the voting machines, and the judges patiently showed them how to work them. 

The issues, as at the Urban League, came over registration problems. Surely there's a better, computerized system waiting to be adopted.

Someone had moved around the corner, so his ID, required for first time voters or those who registered by mail, didn't show the address on the voter registration information. Some came to the wrong location. 

With all the publicity over voting, how can people not know to call and verify the location if they're not sure? But they don't.  One fellow asked me at noon whether he could vote in Peoria if he was registered in Chicago.  And added, "is this the last day to vote?"

Say what?  Well, yes and no. You can make it to your polling place in three hours, I told him. He shrugged and I doubt he did it. Why didn't he vote absentee?

One woman who had taken an absentee ballot but not voted on it had to go home and bring it in. She was then allowed to vote.

Her son brought in a drivers license with a Chillicothe address -- uh oh. He had been living with his dad, he said, but a few months ago moved in with mom.  His voter card had the correct address. After much phone calling he was finally allowed to vote.

The judges and voting officials always ruled on close decisions to let people vote, which makes sense to me.

They're not going to vote twice!  They just want to vote.

And they did, in droves.  Good for them. That's Democracy at the most basic level.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Comments

[Vonster]

So you found absolutely NO voter suppression.