respublica

Oh Iowa

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.

Iowa Caucuses..still a mystery

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.

It's local election day

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.

Local elections coming up

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.

The final election day

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.

It's a mystery to me

"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.

Collinsville election results April 2017

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.

Election Day where you live

Today is the day for municipal elections where you vote for people who oversee the place where you live. Your area may have candidates for city council, school board, township, propositions on tax hikes and on and on. In many ways these elections and the people elected will have more to do with your daily life than the president of the United States.

So go vote.

You wouldn't know there's an election in Clayton

On April 4th there will be municipal elections all over the St. Louis area and Metro East. On the ballot in the city of St. Louis is the election of a new mayor and even though there are two people running, one democrat, one republican, it's well known that the democrat will win. The race for mayor took place during the primary, St. Louis city never elects a republican.

In the Metro East many races are hotly contested with signs everywhere, Facebook pages with lots of comments, elections which make it worthwhile to turn out.

But here in Clayton you'd never know there was to be an election for city government. An aldermanic position from each of the three wards is open and in two of those wards only one person is running. In ward 3 (downtown) there is finally some competition with 2 running. I have seen no signs anywhere or any talk of this election. There must not even be school board position on the ballot or a proposition. So what will we have to vote for come the 4th? St. Louis Community College trustees or some such.

Sometimes when doing our morning walk with local Clayton neighbors we talk about how little information ever comes out from the city. You really have no idea what's happening with local government. The Facebook page is mostly filled with upcoming events, not city hall news. There is no local paper and the monthly City Views has become a one pager with little of interest. If you happen to run into your alderman while walking or in a store you might learn something about what's going on, but that's about it.

Too bad really. A city this size should have lots of news to report. What I appreciate about Collinsville is how much news you can get. While there is really no local paper, there are Collinsville Facebook pages which are very active and city council meetings are videoed live as well as archived on the website for viewing.

Collinsville Votes

A municipal election will be held on April 4 to elect 2 members of the city council with 4 running, Collinsville Township Board 4 to be elected with 6 running. Also on the ballot will be candidates for the library board and school board. Tuesday night a forum was held for which all candidates were invited to meet the public and answer some questions as to why they desire the position. 

Every candidate took part except two incumbent members of the city council. 

The Collinsville Chronicle put up two videos from that forum, one for the city council race and the other for the township. If you plan to vote and I hope you do, give these videos a look.