Low Voter Turnout Expected Today

By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 20, 2012 7:00PM

For the unaware, today is Primary Day in Illinois. A younger version of me would have written something like, "if you don't vote, don't bitch." (I still do vote religiously; it's one of those "America—FUCK YEAH" moments like apple pie, fireworks, cheating on one's taxes, grousing about gas prices and credit card debt.)

Voter turnout is expected to be low today. Chicago Board of Election Commissioners Jim Allen told the Sun-Times part of the reason for that is due to our summerific weather. I was the 14th person at my precinct at 8:30 a.m. and more voters were trickling in when I left 10 minutes later. I was able to resist the temptation of the warm sun and the wind tickling my face long enough to vote. But it was hard, I tell you.

That's the other part of the problem. On the Democratic side of the ledger, President Obama is merely waiting for the GOP to get its act together and anoint Mitt Romney as their presidential nominee. Despite the low voter turnout projections, early voting was up among GOP voters compared to four years ago, even in historically Democratic Cook County.

But there are some races to keep an eye on. Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown is facing a tough primary challenge against 22nd Ward Ald. Ricardo Munoz. In the Eighth Congressional District, Tammy Duckworth and Raja Krishnamoorthi are in a battle to see who will face Joe Walsh in November. Local democrats, meanwhile, are asking constituents of State Rep. Derrick Walsh, who was arrested last week for taking a bribe, to vote for him anyway lest the seat fall to Republicans. On the West side, tom Swiss, a white candidate for General Assembly, is accused of blurring racial lines in his campaign by using photos of a black man in his ads.

The Chicago Board of Elections is allowing voters to bring their smartphones to the voting booth, which should make it easier to bring up the Chicago Bar Association's mobile website and refer to their judicial retentions list, or the IVI-IPO's list of recommendations.

Or you could just vote for your judges based on who Mike Ditka or Glee's Jane Lynch endorsed.