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Election day open thread

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Illinois

* Here’s your election day roundup…

* Today’s special election is a waste; fill vacancies in one election, not two

* Townships Will Consider Breaking From Cook County

* Feds have keen eye on Kane County election

* Quigley taking no chances in 5th District race

* Voters Head To Polls To Replace Emanuel

* Voters to elect new congressman

* Special Election: Illinois Voters Fill Vacant Seat

* Low Voter Turnout Expected in Special Election

* Information on today’s elections

* It’s election day in the suburbs

* Illinois goes to the polls today

* Illinois voters to pick city, school leaders today

* It’s Election Day; go vote

* Vote today!

* Clerks expect low turnout in local elections because of ‘apathy’

* Not voting? You better get in line

* Election Day: University ties may draw more students to local races

* Daily Herald endorsement guide

* Our View: Our endorsements

* Our endorsements

* Diamond in the Ruff for this columnist

* Rekindle fire from last fall; cast your ballot

* Big Names Involved In Tiny Township Race

* What’s going on in your neck of the woods today?

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:13 am

Comments

County option sales tax increase to go directly for school facility improvement in 11 counties. The safest tax someone can pay - Springfield will not get their hands on this money. Thank you Rep. Verschoore and Sen. Jacobs for showing such great leadership on getting this legislation passed - hopefully the voters will also see the wisdom in this tax.

Comment by Chicago Law Student Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:19 am
Low Voter Turnout Expected in Special Election
Very sad
I guess all the shouts for reform are just for blog ranting and letters to the editor

Comment by Hank Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:24 am
Mayor-unopposed
Alderman-unopposed
School board–unopposed

I’m going for one sole reason and that’s to see if I can help the Green Party candidate get elected Township Trustee. Call me crazy, but I believe reform will not begin in earnest in Illinois until both the D’s and R’s realize that the woters are willing to kick both their keysters to the curb. It has to begin somewhere!!

train111

Comment by train111 Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:28 am
The 10:00 count in precinct 17: 13 ballots cast. No passers, no obvious electioneering, a couple of signs.

It’s quiet out there…

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:29 am
My neck of the woods? Sox/Royals at 1.

Oh…elections. Yeah, never mind, I don’t know enough about my municipality to offer an opinion. But I do plan to vote after work.

Comment by Concerned Observer Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:30 am
today is an election day?

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:32 am
I voted for every challenger. Probably a straight losing ticket.

Comment by Mr. Ethics Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:36 am
I did phone calling for Quigley last night and every person I talked to knew about the election and was planning to vote, though I did talk to one voter who hadn’t decided who they would vote for.

This is in contrast to the special election to replace Hastert where I quite often talked to people who did not know about the election.

Comment by Lakefront Liberal Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:41 am
In dynamic Curran, Illinois today, voters are being asked to…oh look, a kitty.

Comment by Commonsense in Illinois Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:49 am
I’ve never understood the disinterest in municipal and school board elections. It’s where your vote can have the most influence, literally impacts where you live and you can get in the ears of the candidates.

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:52 am
My polling place is at the end of my block; when I went out to my car this morning at 7:30, I found a “post-it” flyer on my driver’s side window with a picture of Mike Quigley shaking hands with President Obama. No other signs or poll workers in sight. I’ll vote after work.

Comment by 32nd Ward Roscoe Village Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 10:52 am
Actually interesting races in my town: a rematch for mayor, competition for village trustee, school board and heck, even the township has a challenger. Of course, as a new newspaper publisher I have to stay up tonight and post the results for our website vistors…but I would be up watching the returns online anyway. When I voted at 7:30, I was number 42 in my precinct…expecting about 25-30% turnout.

Comment by Vote Quimby! Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 11:14 am
I voted at my polling place in north Berwyn this morning at 8:30. Due to slow traffic at that hour, plus parking difficulties, I just walked to it. Good grief! I haven’t seen so many poll workers ever! There must’ve been 30 people congregated at the corner and all the way to the taped line on the sidewalk (indicating the feet restriction, I take it). I’ve voted in off year state elections and, of course, presidential elections, and never seen so many poll workers.

I was number 31 at my ward and precinct. Not bad for a local election.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 11:16 am
At 8:30 this morning I was the 9th person to vote in my local election here in Murphysboro. The poll workers were all reading the paper when I walked in. They seemed suprised to see someone under 30 yrs old voting.

Comment by Speaking at Will Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 11:19 am
At 9, I was the 15th person to vote in my 47th ward precinct.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 11:32 am
In my downstate small town precinct where the only contested races were 4 seeking 3 school board seats and the previously mentioned County option sales tax increase to go directly for school facility improvement, I was #35 at 7:45.

Comment by Downstate weed chewing hick Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 11:40 am
Voted at about 10:45 this morning in the 5th District special — 44th ward, 44th precinct (Belmont & LSD). I was the 27th voter. Was hoping to vote for Fritchey, but will be very pleased to have Congressman-elect Quigley by the end of the night.

Comment by 60657 Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 12:17 pm
In Spfld @ my pct. I was th 12th voter an 11am (33 at the 3 pct. polling place). Twp. Trustee, park board names I had seen and gotten fliers from but it is sangamon county so I threw my votes away and voted for the Dems.

Comment by Wow Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 12:29 pm
The Dems are making a showing in this usually solid Republican area fielding candidates for township offices in the two most populous townships plus stealth candidates in some non partisan races. They have been doing phone banking for the past month trying to rouse the Obama voters from last Fall who don’t normally vote in these types of elections. It will be interesting to see if that works.

Comment by MikeintheSuburbs Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 12:36 pm
There were 15 votes cast mid-morning in my precinct, and only as many comments on a CapFax election day open thread. So there’s that.

Comment by Live from the 5th Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 12:54 pm
in my small town, i was 5th in line when the polls opened at 6am.

Comment by wizard Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 12:57 pm
i was the 86th voter in my precinct in flossmoor…

Comment by bored now Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 12:59 pm
Pretty busy this morning in Aurora - we have a three-way mayoral race, so that was expected.

Comment by Ken in Aurora Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 1:05 pm
I just returned from voting in my tiny Sangamon County township. All races uncontested except for school board, where four are vying for three openings. I was the 50th voter. Higher than usual turnout due to a library referendum–people around here are either gung-ho for it or dead-set against it. Sigh.

Comment by HearMeRoar Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 1:07 pm
2:00 call: Precinct 17 reports 34 ballots cast. Alert the runners: there are about 500 other voters in this precinct who haven’t shown up yet.

Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 2:24 pm
I was number 107 at 11:35 this morning in my precinct. Actually, it was two precincts handled by the same election judges. Concensus in McLean County is that voting will be very light. Ditto Bloomington as well–they have their own election commission.

Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 3:04 pm
At 10am, the two precinct location where I vote had eight election judges and one voter: me. I was voter number #27 that morning in my precinct. I found out my favorite election judge died since last November so we talked about that for 3-4 minutes. “Crickets chirping”

Comment by Jake from ? Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 3:39 pm
Looking for about 15% turnout in Oak Park.

Low turn out generally means return for the incumbents.

We all complain about people being driven out of their homes by property tax … but we do not vote

:( wah, wah, wah

Comment by Linda Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 4:06 pm
Re Oak Park…At 11:30 I was voter #33 in my precinct. Don’t know total number of voters in precinct. Note that township slate was unopposed. For village trustees I voted for the VMA party (CRL). A few years ago the opposition did win, promptly split in half and couldn’t do anything. That’s when the VMA was elected back in. Sometimes the only thing worse than electing the incumbents is electing the opposition.

Comment by Oakparker Tuesday, Apr 7, 09 @ 4:25 pm
What election? Gosh only knows why they even bother putting signs up out here. One contested race, and it seems that just about everyone decided to take a pass…on running and voting.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 8, 09 @ 12:21 am