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Question of the day
Tuesday, Mar 21, 2006 The Rockford Register-Star wants uninformed voters to stay home today. By all means, do not go to the polls today if you can’t identify at least one significant difference between your favorite Republican candidate and the four others who are running in the gubernatorial primary. The Belleville News-Democrat wants everyone to vote. When only a small percentage of people vote, the political insiders win. Choosing not to participate in an election is basically a vote for the status quo. It means that the people who stay home either support the party choice, or else are so apathetic they can’t be bothered. Pick a side and defend it.
- Posted by Rich Miller
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- Randall Sherman - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 4:44 am:
My question to the editors of the Rockford Register-Star: How much have you done to insure that your readers are fully capable of casting an educated vote on each and every race on the primary ballots in Rockford, from Governor down to Circuit Court Judge? I suspect the answer is not enough, not by a long shot.
Such hypocrisy from newspapers who whine about the voters not knowing what they are doing at the polls after that newspaper ignores most of the races during the entire campaign makes me sick.
RANDALL SHERMAN
Secretary/Treasurer, Illinois Committee for Honest Government
- Reddbyrd - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 6:39 am:
It seems the Rockford paper is getting a little full of itself. Telling people not to vote is very dumb. The coverage has been thin at best. Typically if your not sucking up to “get Rockford more money, roads, airlines ….” they trash you. Who ever wrote the piece needs to quit and rush off to some university.
- the old republican - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 6:49 am:
Remember what someone said the other day about newspapers … sensationalism, “polls”, selling papers ect, ect. PLEASE VOTE FOLKS !!!! How far could the precinct polling location be ?? Probably right on your way to do something far less important !!! It’s a right & priviledge !!! Despite the snow ,I am & I’m voting for Brady!, Pankau !, Radogno !, Umhlotz ! & Raushenberger for Lt. Gov. We’ve too much to lose if we don’t. Vote , go home & have an Irish coffee to warm up & in both cases you’ll feel better !!
- Bo - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 7:02 am:
The RRS is only telling us what we know already: a majority of folks just don’t care about politics these days. Negative ads, millions of dollars in specials interests being thrown at candidates and corruption at what seems like every level of government is just turning people away.
That being said, I think it is wrong for a paper to encourage apathetic people to stay home. Voting is the only way to let allow your voice to be heard. We’ve all heard of moments in history where single votes have changed the course of politics.
Whether you like it or not, voting is a privilege not held by others in numerous other countries. We should value our right to vote, educate ourselves about candidates and let our voice be heard via the ballot box.
- Bo - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 7:08 am:
Follow up: I just ready Eric Zorn’s column today. He pretty much says it all right here:
“If you’re among the two-thirds of registered voters who are projected to blow off your franchise Tuesday, don’t whine about waste, corruption and fraud at all levels of government. Don’t pout about how nothing ever changes and the taxpayer always gets shafted.”
Well said.
Go read the article.
- Shallow Pharnyx - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 7:13 am:
Belleville N-D got it right. Too many people lament on how bad politicians are and then they don’t vote (not true of Capitol Fax readers). Don’t bi$&% if you haven’t done your part and voted. I am walking through the snow (too dangerous to drive) in order to vote for someone that does not have a chance- but I will feel satisfied when the incumbent does not take my county.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 7:30 am:
I am going to vote, of course, but there are certain races where I won’t cast a vote because I simply don’t know enough about the candidates and/or the issues. Sometimes I rely on newspaper endorsements but not always, it depends on the level of detail and content of the endorsement.
I think everybody knows enough about at least some races to vote, so not voting at all seems like a copout.
- ZC - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 7:56 am:
If you really, truly know nothing about the differences between the candidates - to the extent that you are randomly picking names out of a hat - then there is a case to be made for not voting. But eight times out of ten (races for judges and metropolitan water board reclamation district excepted), the excuse “I don’t know enough” is a cop-out. Even a tiny bit of information goes a long way and is a legitimation for voting. If a friend you know recommends someone, that’s enough. If you like one candidate’s ads even more than another’s, that is last-ditch defensible. Or go by the endorsements, either of the newspapers or if you like your local political boss. Even a minimally-informed vote is good for the system, and good for you, because the more you vote the more people will try and inform you about the candidates. It sounds like the Rockford paper may be making it more socially acceptable for people to say they don’t know anything, and what kind of newspaper would encourage that mindset?
Low turnout is not the death-knell of democracy - it really can just mean that people are OK with the status quo - but if you don’t expend the minimal cost to vote, I really do believe you lose the right to complain about your politicians.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 8:12 am:
Just voted in Chicago, only 16 people had voted so far.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 8:12 am:
Just voted in Chicago, only 16 people had voted at polling place so far.
- Bubo - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 8:33 am:
Just voted in Roselle, as of 7:15am, 18 people had voted and the judges said it was pretty low turnout.
I did vote for the 4th Lt. Gov because I really don’t like any of the other 3.
- Mr. Ethics - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 8:41 am:
Remember that we have the power to change things. But rarely use it. What is this power you speak of? The ballot box. Shame on the Rockford paper to tell anyone not to vote.
- Southern Illinoisian - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 8:45 am:
The RRS and BND articles are two sides of the same coin. There’s no excuse for an uneducated electorate, and no excuse to not exercise your hard-won right to vote, regardless of the status quo. But, this is preaching to the choir here.
2″ of mush in Belleville, turnout is light. Lots of schools (a.k.a. polling places) closed in Montgomery, Macoupin, Fayette, Calhoun, and Bond counties.
- Navin Johnson - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 9:09 am:
Just voted in the 47th ward. Only 36 had voted before me. Not much activity except for two guys handing out sample ballots.
The Rockford Register-Star’s position is dumb. Most newspapers don’t do anything to give the readers a clear idea of where the candidates stand on issues. They usually devote an immense amount of space to horserace speculation and the latest spat between candidates.
Maybe the Star will start advocating for a poll tax or literacy test to keep undesirables away from the ballot box.
- Coloradem - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 9:14 am:
I take a hybrid position. Everyone should go to the polls and vote in the races they are informed about. Don’t vote in the ones that you are not informed enough about to be comfortable with your votes. People have died and are dying for the right to vote. This is truly our most precious right and we should use it…
- WTF - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 9:15 am:
At 8:10am I was voter #2 in Springfield. My wife was voter #1. No one other voter in sight.
- southernilrepub - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 9:17 am:
Snow closed schools over here north and south of I70. Was into the polls @ 6am to take breakfast to election judges of both sides. Doing the best to have secondary streets cleared of Repub signs and then clear the main roads close to the end of polling time. Its not fun being a committeemen on days when its nasty like today and have to clean up all these signs.
- ISU REP - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 9:20 am:
As much as I hate uninformed voters (i.e. a majority of those who live in Cook County)it’s a democracy and even those who are the most intellectually challenged among us get to vote…I mean how else would we get so many “colourful” politicians into office…
- Rockfordian - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 9:36 am:
Just voted in Rockford an hour ago. 38 people had voted. And as for the RRS, whatever. Since when does being an ignoramus preclude you from doing anything in America? We Rockfordians don’t even bother reading those editorials anymore. They endorsed a do-nothing mayor last time around despite a tidal wave of support for a fresh young independent (who won).
- SenorAnon - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 10:43 am:
“As much as I hate uninformed voters (i.e. a majority of those who live in Cook County)”
Way to let your buffoonish demagoguery slip into your post. You have no data save your little snide remarks to back up that voters outside of Cook County (read: white Republicans) are well informed vs their dumb Cook counterparts.
- prairiestatedem - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 10:44 am:
Slow Turnout Countywide in Cook County…
City and Suburbs the activity that is going on appears to Be for Stroger and Dart
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 10:49 am:
Maybe Sam Cahnman isn’t crazy. We need open primaries because - DAMN THE TORPEDOES! - people don’t always want a string of R’s and D’s behind their names. When candidates purchase name and party logs, do voters really want to be nagged by phone bank after phone bank followed by mailer after mailer? I guess it shows overall voter apathy when citizens can’t band together and request a constitutional amendment in Illinois that prohibits closed primaries.
- ISU REP - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 11:01 am:
sure I do they, didn’t they vote for Rod?…case closed, p.s. nice use of the theosaurus this morning!! I LOVE when people turn a joke into a race issue, truly you need better things to do with your time.
- IVOTE! - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 11:11 am:
Hopefully, the Rockford paper will at least make some folks THINK! It is pathetic–ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC–that so many people have no interest or concern in local (including Guv on down) elections. I know a lot of folks who don’t take a newspaper and don’t watch local or national news. It’s totally uninformed voters like those that ended up putting some LaRoucheis on the dem ballot a number of years ago. So, I agree with the Rockford paper–if you don’t have a clue, don’t vote. But more importantly–if you don’t have a clue, GET BUSY and find out what the candidates are all about! Voting for someone because they have a nice name (like Smith or Jones or Anthony Martin) that sounds “so American” rather than a “suspicious-sounding name” like Topinka, or Oberweis or Blagojevich. . . well, that does more damage to the idea of democracy than not voting. Many of you noted correctly that American soldiers from the revolutionary war on have died so we have a right to vote. The least WE could do is inform ourselves about the candidates!
- Bradys the Guy - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 11:26 am:
The Rockford Register Star is off base. It was once said that it is every American’s patriotic duty to vote. I think that attitude should be revived. The whole world watches us, and when the Chinese, the Iranians, and other enemies of American democracy (and those they can influence)obtain the perception that American citizens are ambivalent about democracy, it fuels their opposition. If for no other reason, every citizen should cast a vote in order to demonstrate our commitment to our system and our confidence in its integrity.
I overheard a commuter last night snipe at a campaign worker handing out leaflets: “I hate politics… I can’t wait until Tuesday is over.” Sure, we know plenty of people who feel this way, but they lead a comfortable life in the most prosperous society in the world. It didn’t get that way through apathy. When Iraqis, Afghans, and others brave terrorism in record numbers in order to vote and show their dyed fingers in pride, it should be a sobering reminder to Americans of how precious our right to vote is. The uninformed voter can write in his best friend if he wants, and he thereby makes a statement and helps keep our democracy vibrant.
- DOWNSTATE - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 11:50 am:
Just think there are people who spend their entire life never having a say-so in who leads their country and if they do speak it is prison or death.
- YNM - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 12:05 pm:
SenorAnon, don’t worry … ISU REP rarely has any substance to go with his diatribe.
And of course he meant you used the Thesaurus, not the “theosaurus” …
- Marta Elena - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 12:29 pm:
Whoah! On the downstate vs cook county rhetoric. I grew up in cook county but live in downstate IL now. Does the Chicago machine represent true democracy?
I prefer the Belleville News since the political insiders may tend to have the majority vote in the primary. But some people (including some members of my family) tend to let those political insiders fight it out in the primary. I’ve also heard people say that there are too many candidates to choose from. People should vote, if anything so they cannot gripe about the political process without saying that they didn’t vote.
As far as the Rockford news - I didn’t realize anti-democratic dribble can sell newspapers today.
- ISU REP - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 12:33 pm:
geeze, no ones getting my jokes today…sigh…everyone needs to lighten up its primary day!!! :)
- Hello, Mrs. Rockford, Wake Up - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 12:39 pm:
The City of Rockford is pathetic, and its paper is about as good as the Wheeling High School Gazette. It needs to wake up and realize its future as a bedroom community of Chicago. Extend Metra from Harvard to Rockford and accept your fate–it is far better than your current condition. Hello, Naperville is now larger than Rockford.
- Budget Watcher - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 12:43 pm:
What motivates an uninspired electorate to vote? Maybe the Rockford Register-Star was trying to use reverse psychology? The Belleville News Democrat instead uses shame to try to overcome voter apathy. Why are voters disinterested?
I don’t live in Illinois anymore, but I watch with amazement at the degree of rationalization that goes on in Illinois politics. You have a former governor who, at the very least, misused his position to gain favors for his friends. You have a sitting governor who may be the most immature governor I can remember, with an administration that is tainted by multiple ongoing federal investigations. You have a Republican primary contest for Governor that has illustrated an absurd display of half-truths and distortions from one candidate. And Chicago and Cook County politics? What a tangle of self-interests and corruption. The people who work hardest in the Cook and Chicago elections are the ones with the most to lose, which is hardly the most noble of reasons.
Illinois seems to illustrate how elections can devolved into such ugly, nasty, expensive, and uncivil partisan spectacles, that voter apathy is bound to be occur.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 1:34 pm:
And you know, Budget Watcher, the upcoming gubernatorial race will be a mess and, in two years, the Senate race will also be a bloodshed. Illinois politics are an example of how NOT to run a state and campaigns. It’s sad when it takes as much money to win a state rep seat as it does to win a Congressional seat. For shame.
- Making The Wheels Turn - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 1:57 pm:
Was talking to someone who has looked at The RRS’s history of endorsements in contested elections, and their success percentage is not too high over the past number of years.
The RRS just can’t seem to find that magic formula to get the voters to follow their lead. Probably what’s behind the editorial.
If they had half a brain (apart from making them twice as smart as they currently are), they’d sign up with Rich Miller for a once a week political column - that way they would have at least SOMETHING worth reading in that excuse for a litterbox liner.
- anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 2:17 pm:
Just voted in South Moline 4, in Rock Island County, turnout light to medium so far in this bellweather county downstate.
- Anon - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 2:32 pm:
Are you people nuts?!?!? The fewer people that vote the more mine counts. And to be nullified by the nitwits or the contented who vote just they ought to is a revolted notion. Fewer voters doesn’t kill a democracy - killing the “right” (not a privilege) to vote kills a democracy. And remember all you Democrats out - the general election is on the 8th.
- Darrell Democrat - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 2:53 pm:
Maybe if we offered a tax deduction for voting it would increase turnout. Get $10 off your state taxes each time you vote…. at least it would eliminate the middleman (see East St. Louis area for cash-for-votes).
I voted this morning at 9:15 and was #60… can you tell we have a doomed school referendum on the ballot?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 3:33 pm:
for what it’s worth…voted in the 19th ward at about 8:15 and I was the 58th voter.
- Lovie's Leather - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 4:24 pm:
I voted at 10:30 at the good ole firehouse… yeah, I was #32. It’ll pick up as the snow thaws… or atleast it should… with this low of a turnout, there could be quite a suprise…
- Middle Ground - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 4:43 pm:
Rahm Emanuel and Jan Schakowsky put a lot of weight behind Claypool. If he loses, how does this affect the Congresspersons?
- Papa Legba - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 4:50 pm:
I think what the Rockford Register-Star is trying to emphasize is that you don’t walk into the polling place and vote for the clown with the greatest name recognition. Too many people walk in clueless, vote for the bozo with the name they hear the most. Then they start voting on best sounding names, position on the ballot (why do you think politicians want the first position on the ballot?).
What they are saying, in a thinly disguised way, is that there are idiots in office right now. We need to oust them and if you aren’t gonna help, stay home.
- Fearless Freep - Tuesday, Mar 21, 06 @ 6:32 pm:
When you see what foolish, ill-informed choices that Rockford voters have made over the years, and all the incompetent people who have gotten elected in this town, YES, I think staying home would be a good idea.