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Update: Well, that post on the undefeated Kennedys didn't hold up well. Last night Joe III lost his primary race to the incumbent senator, Edward Markey. All things come to an end, even Kennedys winning races.
It surprises me some states are still holding primary elections when it's so close to the actual November elections. But Massachusetts is one of them and here is an interesting statistic on the winning percentage of Kennedys on a ballot over the years.
They never lose.
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Today is the 100th anniversary of the right for women to vote. As amazing as it seems at this point in time, this was as controversial back in 1920 as many issues going on today. Maybe more.
Take this pamphlet for example, click to enlarge
Oddly, The National Association OPPOSED to Woman Suffrage, was headed up by a woman, Josephine Dodge. She believed that allowing women to vote would would decrease women’s work in communities and their ability to effect societal reforms.
And get this pamphlet also opposing the right of women to vote. The point of this is that voting would not improve women's daily life in the same way cleaning things would. To help women see this, they give many helpful cleaning hints. I rather like the idea of cleaning wallpaper with fresh bread. Click to enlarge again.
Also oddly, men at that time must have been ok with women voting since they were the only ones to vote on this amendment.
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I spent 16 years as an Illinois election judge for Madison County. I often think back on those years and the many elections I spent in the original township building and then the Collinsville Senior Center. I think it was the old township building, the place on Vandalia near the motorcycle store. The first election I worked was in August of 1988, a special election to elect a successor to Rep. Mel Price. Jerry Costello won that day. In any event many hours in one room for each election, many of which had very few voters. They were long days, get there at 5 in the morning and not leave until after ballots were synced to make sure the number of votes matched up with the number of voters, the absentee ballots from that precinct were opened and tabulated then all were and bundled up to be taken to the Madison County Court House.
But it was also true that Madison County did a fantastic job of running elections. The officials made sure all judges knew ahead of time how things would be run during the day and how to tabulate and turn in at the end. They left no question unanswered ahead of the election.
In the beginning the voters used the punch ballots, then paper ballots which went into a counting machine and later computer screen ballots. If a voter wanted a paper ballot, rather than a machine they could request one.
All of which I am now going over in my mind as I listen to all the news stories on how we are going to vote this November. The virus keeps looming over everything and health safety is upper most in everyone's mind. But how to get a smooth and fair election is going to be the conumdrum. It's easy to say, mail in ballots only, but as an old judge I can visualize the problems with this. Mail in ballots are traditionally ballots requested by a registered voter, not ballots sent to everyone on the rolls. If a lot of registered voters go this route, there will be quite a bit of time at the close on election night before any results are in because, also on election night the absentee (or mail-in) ballots are not opened until the end. They shouldn't be opened til the end anyway.
Will the judges not have to come to the precinct until 7 in the evening and then open all the mailed ballots and then tabulate? Or will they be in precinct all day tabulating what has already been sent in and then ballots which arrived that same day?
Or will we be be going to a combination of mail in and in person?
No matter how we vote, each voter has been required to be who they are supposed to be on the official voter roll. And be registered to actually vote.
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While watching the fiasco that was the Iowa caucuses last night, I found myself laughing at the frustration all the cable news people were exhibiting. No matter what channel or political bent these news experts represented, they were getting testy and downright angry over the delays. They'd said everything several times over and were tired, sick of sitting on those panel chairs and just wanted to get out of there. At around 10:30, I began to be less interested in results than watching to see which cable channel panel would break camp first and just leave.
And rightly so. Once again Iowa's way of putting on a caucus rather than a traditional ballot primary looks like what it is: a bad idea. And, to use some sort of app to record precinct votes made things worse. If this night doesn't provoke a change in making Iowa the first state to go during a primary season, something is very wrong.
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CNN has a story this morning which tries to explain how the Iowa caucuses work as opposed to normal state primaries. I tried my best to read this and understand, but they lost me. The whole process is mystery wrapped in an enigma.
I've linked the explanation so you can see if you understand it. We will learn which democratic candidate ends up winning Iowa or, rather, which candidate wins the most actual votes and which wins the most delegates. Two different things. CNN will judge the winner on who gets the most delegates.
I've said for years that Iowa plays too important a role in who becomes the person to beat in primaries and this explanation does not change my mind.
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Some municipalities have a lot going on this election day, others minimal. But get out and vote, the local community affects you more personally than the national elections do. These referendums and candidates are where your property taxes, school taxes, sales taxes etc get decided. Our election here in Clayton is very minimal. Only a couple of school board seats are up for grabs and no one has opposition for the board of aldermen. But there is a school referendum that has brought out the signs for and against.
In Collinsville the mayoral race is very active and hard fought. Lots of campaigning has gone on for seats on the library board which is unusual to say the least. I was on the Collinsville library board for 12 years and find this very interesting. So I look forward to watching the returns for both places tonight. And, the Madison County Illinois county clerk will have the results posted very quickly unlike St. Louis County which seems to take forever.
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Next Tuesday many local communities will have elections for city councils, library boards, school boards, etc. I'm always amazed at how things work in Clayton. There is almost never a time when an alderman or mayor has any competition, it's like there is an unspoken rule that if you desire a position on the board of aldermen, you wait your turn. There seems always to be someone who has been selected to replace a retiring person and that's that. So we have no one running against the mayor again this go round. The main competition in Clayton is for school board. That is one area where things are normally very hard fought.
In Collinsville there is always competition for city council and school board and mayor. Right now there is a vigorous campaign going on for mayor with signs everywhere and social media talk every day.
I'd rather have it the Collinsville way, it's much better for getting information out to the public as opposed to officials not having to answer for their votes while in office.
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Americans seem to have been voting in this year's election for months. Ok, maybe not months, but at least for weeks we've read or heard about early voting in various parts of the country. So today, the official Election Day for 2018, we'll just consider it the last day of the election.
The Belleville News Democrat is publicizing how they will go about giving us results from Illinois and Metro East. One thing I've always appreciated about the Metro East elections, especially Madison County, was how quickly returns come in and are posted online. This is not true for Missouri or St. Louis county, it takes forever on election nights to get any information. It's all in how returns are tabulated and returned that makes the difference in how quickly you'll have the information. Metro East counties do it better.
I'm sure the Post Dispatch has reporters who will be working the election and returns as well, my problem is I can't tell because as soon as I click the P-D website, a black screen falls over the page to stop any reading of any story. Now we do subscribe to the paper but we are on vacation and I am using a different computer so I can't get to my normal sign in. But seriously, it's very frustrating to not be able to read a current story on election returns because of a pay wall.
Best to just go to the county and state election sites for returns.
Also, St. Louis city and County election officials will keep us all waiting til very late for their returns.
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"A Missouri judge has made clear that local election workers cannot enforce a core requirement in a new voter photo identification law."
What is the requirement? "voters lacking valid photo ID should sign a sworn statement and present some other form of identification to cast a regular ballot."
I don't understand what is so wrong about proving who you are when you go to vote, especially when it may be your first time in a precinct or state. The judge clarified the law to include not just state workers, but local election officials on election day. I guess there was confusion over whether or not both entities had to do this. So now, no one does.
In our Clayton precinct we have always been asked for ID and I'm not upset by this at all.
My dad often told stories of growing up in Chicago in the 20's and 30's and seeing election day shenanigans. Bars were closed on election day supposedly to keep votes from being bought for the price of a beer. But that never stopped the Chicago machine back then, there were ways to stuff ballot boxes.
My grandfather played in a band (really an orchestra) in many a ballroom or speakeasy and my dad's aunt wrote soap operas for NBC which had their broadcasts come from Chicago. So my dad got around as he spent time with both of these people and saw a lot of Chicago Machine goings on. My dad had so many stories and he was forever cynical about local politics. Kids weren't protected like they are today so he was trooping around the city when young all the time.
Elections are better now, bars can stay open, but there will always be those who want to game the system. It's just not that hard to have some form of ID.
Here is a picture of my grandfather's band. He is on left in back row.
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Yesterday the voters in Collinsville went to the polls to elect 2 city council members, 4 township members, one park district commissioner, and library district members. I haven't found the library or park results, Madison County is excellent at publishing the results in quick order but its website for results is very awkward to navigate.
City council: Donna Green and David Jerome defeated incumbents Nancy Moss and Jeff Kypta
Township: 4 were elected: Derrick Keith, Patrick Presson, Mike Foley, and Dan Hopkins
The Madison and St. Clair County proposition for a 1 cent sales tax for schools was defeated.
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