How embarrassing. I got to my polling place in the near west 'burbs in IL today, expecting to write in yet another candidate against Dan Lipinski. Well, it appears the Lords of the Remap have spared me! I am now a proud constituent of Luis Gutierrez! I like Rep. Gutierrez! I suppose I skipped over that on the sample ballot I used from David Orr's office to prepare since it is a unopposed race.
Like most people, I spend no time on unopposed races. Even if I vote for the guy, and he turns out to be a Nazi (I hate IL Nazis), no harm, no foul, the guy would've won anyway and someone in the party fell down on the job in not sounding the alarm (cough...Scott Lee Cohen, not a Nazi, but enough baggage to need an airport handling system).
After the curly cue, this years tepid races
I concentrate on contested races, this year, as most, there were a number of contested judicial races. I used the grid from the bar associations (I think it's actually the Chicago Sun Times, they aggregate the various bar associations), and I go through and eliminate anyone getting even 1 (though usually if there is 1 there will be others) NR, next I eliminate NE (implies the candidate didn't bother to send back the questionnaire), then I comb through looking for who has more HQ, HR, WQ etc. and I look at the bar associations to determine how to weigh each one. Finally I come up with a list of names, which I type and print to take with me).
There was an actual race for 12 District State Senator and I decided I liked Montes better. There are no candidate rating systems, so I generally look at their record, ideas, etc. And sometimes I vote for folk because I don't like their opposition!
I liked Dorothy Brown for County Clerk because she has done a lot to modernize the office.
I was approached by poll workers with cards. I took them. One called for me to vote for Obama & Roxie Rochester. A lot of candidates are trying to tie themselves to Barack Obama in these parts. He must be popular here.
I did vote for Roxie, but really because she was rated higher than her opponents. At least by my weighing. I did vote for Obama, too. I've heard of him, somehow.
I also got a card from the Democrats, but it was geared toward those still in the 3rd U.S. district (Lipinski's area).
The election helpers were having a hell of a time getting the machine to code the cards. It was a long wait.