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First, the setup…
Lakemoor village board candidate Gregory L. LaPlante was arrested April 13 and charged with a pair of felonies less than a week before he finished last in a six-way race for three seats, unofficial results showed.
Lake Zurich Unit District 95 school board President Gary W. Robillard died April 15, two days before he won re-election.
The connecting thread? People who voted early in these races did so without being able to factor the developments into their choices. […]
They are real examples of early voting’s potential problems, election analyst Curtis Gans said.
“A large number of citizens (may not) have had that knowledge when they voted,†said Gans, director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, a nonpartisan group based in Washington, D.C., that scrutinizes voting trends. “And that’s a problem.â€
In Illinois, early voting begins 22 days before Election Day and lasts 17 days. For the recent statewide consolidated election, early voting ran from March 26 to April 12.
Now, the question: Do you support early voting despite these problems? Why or why not?
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 9:29 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
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What if those events/revelations happened the day after the scheduled election? Should we hold a new election?
These sorts of events are relatively rare. The possibility that there may be new information available to voters does not justify eliminating early voting, any more than new information justifies holding a new election.
Comment by the Other Anonymous Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 9:39 am
No. Campaign season has a timetable, and early voting means an even more uninformed electorate. Not to mention it violates the Constitution for federal elections.
Comment by T.J. Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 9:59 am
Yes. Early voting encourages more people to vote. We have abysmally low turnout anyway so anything we can do to get turnout up is good. If a knowledgeable electorate is so important then should we test peoples knowledge before we allow them to vote? Of course not! So, this kind of lack of knowledge because you may have already voted before something comes to light is irrelevant too. In fact, we should add internet voting to encourage even more people to vote.
Comment by Way Northsider Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 10:03 am
Early voting is a horrible idea:
1. It protects incumbents as challengers usually don’t have the resources to get their message out that early;
2. It increases the cost of campaigns as candidates have to struggle to get their message out earlier and longer;
3. It increases the risk of voter fraud as there are more polling places that can’t possibly be monitored by pollwatchers and other election officials;
4. It costs the taxpayers an arm and a leg to pay for it;
5. It stifles debate and dialogue on the issues as citizens and the media tend not to pay as much attention to campaign until the end — especially for smaller races;
6. It probably doesn’t really encourage more people to vote — if you can’t make it the polls or vote absentee you probably don’t care enough to vote anyways.
I hope this goes away real soon!
Comment by Just Observing Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 10:05 am
Absentee ballots, unless cissued under a rigid set of controls are an incentive for rigging elections by the ones with the knowledge.
First and foremost is an accurate canvass of registered voters and their residences. This exists almost nowhere in the City. The Chicago Board of Elections records are way out of date.
All a ward heeler need to do is get ahold of the list, and with a few friends request absentee ballots for people who no longer live there. With a wink and a nod to janitors and on site landlords (in exchange for clean inspections, or under the threat of the rat patrol) Mr. Heeler, collects all the absentee ballots that have been mailed out. He and his cronies fill in the ballots and mail them back. That is all there is to it.
Comment by Truthful James Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 10:55 am
Early voting is great.
The only way to make it better is to count the early votes each day and publicize them. We’d have days of horseracey coverage and know who was winning heading into the “real” election day. It’d be great.
Comment by Frank Booth Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 11:13 am
I think that all elections should be held on Saturdays from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm with no early voting. Absentee ballots should be closely monitored and returned and counted by 7:00 pm on the Saturday prior to regular election.
Comment by i d Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 11:14 am
I’m all for early voting if it means we can elect more dead people. They’ve got to be an improvement over the live ones.
Comment by Doodles Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 11:18 am
They find another way to cover it up. We should have known about John Stroger’s stroke and the severity, but it was simply lied about and covered up until it was too late for another person to file as an indy.
Comment by Wumpus Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 11:41 am
A majority of Illinoians believe that the gubernatorial election was six months too early and would not re-elect the incumbant now that he has has come out for the state’s largest tax increase, and doesn’t believe in regulating utility rates.
Thats the breaks.
Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 12:25 pm
I’m a strong supporter of Early Voting although it probably doesn’t need to be 3 week’s long. I disagree with other posters: Early Voting helps fight voting shenanigans.
Early voting is carried out away from the prying eyes of the local political establishment and it is all via computers. No one can see your vote.
At the south side Chicago precincts where I have poll-watched, the-powers-that-be have their person at the ballot scanner to check the paper ballot before it is recorded. It is all very subtle but very effective. The precinct captains have already told their voters which races are important –I listened as they announced it to the election judges— and people are free to vote however they want on the unimportant races. But if you show up to vote, you vote the party line on the designated races……..or you are likely to lose that City job your Alderman got you, etc.
Comment by Redbright Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 12:25 pm
I haven’t seen any evidence of any real increase in voter participation through early voting. If anything as a precinct committeeman with voter lists, I see the same voters who would normally vote on election day early voting and the same voters who use absentee ballots use absentee ballots.
Those voters who I urged to early vote in my precinct were voters I normally rely upon for a turnout during elections.
I would rather see the polling places close at 9:00 p.m. to blunt the “I didn’t have time” voter excuse. Pay the election judges some of the extra money now currently being blown on early voting expenses and keep polling places open until 9:00 p.m.
In Lake County we get final returns in 2-3 hours. In Cook County it takes days to count them anyway!
Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 12:43 pm
I like early voting because it reduces the chance of the last minute gotcha being pulled out by a candidate toward her opponent. If done early to accomodate early voting, it gives the opponent time to respond intelligently.
Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 12:49 pm
All elections should be vote by mail. You get your ballot, you mail it in, you’re through. Then, when you start getting all of those phone calls the last week of the campaign, you cam tell them that you have already voted.
Vote by mail has had very few problems in other states and is cheap.
Comment by Shelbyville Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 1:11 pm
A similar situation happened in the 25th Ward where early votes for Medrano were discarded after he was disqualified. If these votes were counted Solis would have faced a runoff.
I’m with the poster ID, but would extend the voting to include Sunday. Early voting hasn’t dramatically increased turnouts. If people are going to be out of town they still can request an absentee ballot.
Comment by Tom Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 3:24 pm
Mr. Gans makes the erroneous assumption that voters are somehow informed, or even better informed, if they vote on Election Day. Or most recent gubernatorial election seems to indicate otherwise.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, Democracy is the worst form of government, except every other form of government. It seems to follow then that more democracy — more opportunities for more folks to vote — is also preferable.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 3:25 pm
I live in School Dist 95 and I voted for the dead candidate. On election day. There was no way I was going to vote for James Tarbet. I knew someone qualified would be appointed to replace Robillard. As it turned out Robillard beat Tarbet by 100 votes.
Comment by Illinois Eddie Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 3:55 pm
Personally, I love early voting and think it should continue. It’s easy and convenient. The idea posed by one commenter of voting by mail or I would add by email is also a great idea. We don’t seem to have many original ideas with regards to voting except for machines that do not work.
Comment by Just a Citizen Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 7:15 pm
i d - Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 11:14 am:
I think that all elections should be held on Saturdays from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm with no early voting. Absentee ballots should be closely monitored and returned and counted by 7:00 pm on the Saturday prior to regular election.
Me:
I’d offer Sundays 7am-7pm, so Orthodox Jews who wouldn’t be able to drive to the polls on the Sabbath don’t get disenfranchised.
Comment by Boone Logan Square Monday, Apr 23, 07 @ 7:57 pm