Primary Day
March 21, 2006 at 12:37 PM by Dr. Drang
Today is primary election day in Illinois, but I don’t think I’ll be voting. Because the local officials, state representatives, and US representative from my area are always Republicans—and Illinois has an open primary system—I usually grab a Republican ballot and try to pick the least objectionable candidate. I assume Republicans in Chicago do the same thing with Democratic ballots.
(In 1992, I was so focused on the local elections that I forgot I would be voting in the Presidential primary. [The nominations are usually wrapped up by time Illinois’s primary comes around.] So there I was, staring at a ballot with George Bush and Pat Buchanan as my choices. I established my paleo-conservative credentials by voting Buchanan, and he rewarded me by giving the “culture war” speech at the convention that may have thrown the election to Clinton. Clinton was the first presidential winner I ever voted for.)
But this year I can’t bring myself to vote Republican, even in a primary. The war, the corruption, the fundamentally criminal behavior of the national Republican party—I just can’t do it.
If I lived a few blocks to the west, I’d probably force myself to the polls, because there’s a school referendum for that district on the ballot and it’s pretty heated. I see a lot of yard signs about it on my drive to work; my favorite is
VOTE YES!
No Overcrowding
Voting Yes for No is primary voting in a nutshell.
