Some Technical Difficulties

When I posted my observation that a February primary election for U.S. Senate would result in a turnout unknown before in a township primary election, I didn’t take into account what a commenter on Illinoize suggests.

I pass it on for your consideration:

fedup dem said…

It should be noted that there are some logistical problems in the proposal to hold a special election for the unexpired portion of Barack Obama’s Senate term, which need to be addressed before the General Assembly acts.

Any act to require a special election would (like any other proposed law) have to go to he Governor for his signature. The Illinois Constitution gives Gov. Sleazy 60 days to decide if he wishes to sign or veto the measure. This would wipe out any chance of a first round of voting being held in conjunction with municipal primaries on February 24 and could even prevent the race from appearing on the April 7 ballot.

As for the February 24 election, only a limited number of communities conduct elections that day (as most municipalities do not have traditional partisan primary elections). I believe that here in Cook County only about five of the county’s suburbs will have balloting that day.

As for the April 7 elections, the big headache there is Chicago, the only community in the state where elections are not being held (thus one-fourth of the state’s precincts were not scheduled to hold elections). Who pays for the added cost of holding one or two added elections? Usually you are among the first to scream about additional government spending!

it should also be noted that the filing deadline for local candidates running for offices to appear on the February 24 local ballots is this coming Monday, a day before any plan to require a special election can get through the General Assembly. All of these matters would have to dealt with. I think it is much easier to simply impeach and remove Blagojevich and let Pat Quinn make a sound appointment.

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That said, filing times could be shortened, but that’s only one problem mentioned above. The big one is getting Blagojevich to do anything with the bill but sit on.

Non-partisan municipalities also hold primary elections, if there are enough candidates.

It used to be that primaries were held if there were more than two times the number of people running for the number of open seats. Now it is more than four times. That pretty much guarantees that there will be no city primaries in Crystal Lake and Woodstock.

It also improves the chances of incumbents, because they are almost invariably better known than their challengers. The more challengers, the more the anti-incumbent vote is split.

This law has just taken effect.


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