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I find this difficult to believe. Nobody’s ever done any poll-watching in Aurora?
Chicago-style election tactics make Aurora debutPoll watchers: People bused in from as far away as Windy City
By Ed Fanselow
STAFF WRITERAURORA — Voters here got a taste of big-league politics Tuesday, courtesy of Democratic and Republican poll watchers bused in from as far away as Chicago to get out the vote for their parties’ respective mayoral candidates.
Although recruited partisan poll watchers have been used for decades in places like Chicago and Cicero, Tuesday marked the first time such tactics have made their way west to Aurora, local political observers said.
“In all my years, I’ve never seen this,” said Charles Bolwin, a longtime Republican precinct committeeman on Aurora’s far East Side and a former DuPage County election judge. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.”
Is Aurora really that backwater? Poll-watchers have been used for decades, and not just in Chicago or (shiver) Cicero. DuPage County uses them, Sangamon County uses them. The list of places that have never used poll-watchers would be much, much shorter.
I would also assume that both the Democrats and the Republicans used poll-watchers in the highly targeted 2002 House race that was based in Aurora. If they didn’t, they were fools.
I can understand how locals might be wary of imported workers, but that happens so much in legislative races - going back at least 20 years - that I don’t see it as an issue any longer.
And if this is, indeed, the first time that poll-watchers have been used in Aurora, all I can say is, “Welcome to the 19th Century.”
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 11, 05 @ 3:25 pm
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Hey, those of us in Aurora are proud not to be like Cicero and Chicago.
You’re correct. There were some union-type poll watchers in the 83rd when Chapa LaVia first ran, but that was a new phenomenon. You have to have local (and effective) party organizations to have poll watchers. The Dems are getting their act together and starting to get a ground game here.
Some GOP election judge whined about poll watchers to the Beacon’s Openline and they made a story about it. And don’t put too much stock in Beacon stories. For one thing, they’re not smart enough to pick up your column.
Comment by FlakCat Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 7:16 am
It was really the first time we had em in a ‘non-partisan’ race with so many from out of town.
That’s more what made it a ’story’.
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 9:59 am
FYI-Charles Bolwin who was quoted in the story is a republican election judge who tried to tell the pollwatcher at his precinct he couldn’t be there. He also had a nasty speakout in the Becan News directed at mayor-elect Weisner.
Comment by Anonymous Sunday, Apr 17, 05 @ 5:40 pm