Wednesday, March 19, 2014

So yesterday we had an election...


Normally we would be all over a coming election although I feel we didn't cover yesterday's primary election at least didn't provide many lead-up posts. To be honest, there weren't many surprises especially in many of our local elections. Most of the people up for election especially at the top of the ballot have no one running against them and at that no one from the Republican Party or others parties running against them with a few exceptions - for example State Rep. Elgie Sims had no Democratic opponents however he will have a Republican running against him.

All the same we learned from Greg Hinz that turnout was low yesterday at least throughout Cook County and in Chicago:
In Cook County, County Clerk David Orr said that selected precincts that allow him to instantly break down ballots by party indicate that, by early afternoon, 14,300 Republicans had cast ballots to 10,700 Democrats. The GOP portion of the total is higher, but the actual number of Republican ballots cast may be no higher than usual.

Overall, Mr. Orr said, turnout may hit 25 percent of registered voters, a "fairly low" figure.

That's a lot better than in the city, where Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen said "a real last-minute tide" will be needed to hit even 20 percent turnout. Based on trends in early voting, "we don't see a pattern of crossover," he added, with Democrats taking Republican ballots, as some union leaders has urged.
So in Cook County while Republican turnout is likely at it's normal levels, more Republicans turned out for this election that Democrats. More voted pulled Republican ballots than Democrats. Interesting, but what accounts for it?

Well, it was partially answered in the above quote. However, I get the feeling there weren't many competitive races throughout the city yesterday. Unfortunately in the city the Democratic primary is the main election to watch if there is competition there then whoever wins can expect to get elected to office.

Well all the same perhaps there isn't enough of a trend this time around, but perhaps we may see different numbers in November. If only I could compare the numbers for the 2010 primaries vs. this years primaries and the same for November 2010 to November 2014.

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