This graphic done by Steven Buyansky of The Elgin Courier-News is too good not to pass on.
It’s a sewer manhole cover that appeared on the front page of the new re-formated tabloid.
In a square part of the inner cover is the headline
ELGIN
10 WANT THE JOB AS CITY C OUNCIL MEMBER
PAGE 5 THREE WILL BE ELECTED
WHO ARE THE CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR THE FOUR-YEAR TERM
Above and below are the candidates’ photos and last names.
Prigge, Scruggs, Nowak, Gilliam and Quezado
on the top and
on the bottom.
In years past there would have been a municipal primary election to pare the number down to twice the number of candidates running.
My guess is that the statewide incumbent lobby decided incumbents had a better chance to get re-elected if they could run against more challengers.
In a two-person race, for instance, an incumbent would not have to get 50%, plus 1, of the votes cast. With three running, one-third, plus 1, would do it.
With ten candidates, and three incumbents running for three seats, obviously less than one-third of the votes will win a seat.
The full names of the ten candidates follow:
- Richard Dunne,
- Juan Figueroa,
- Robert Gilliam,
- Brenda Harris Khan,
- Shane Nowak,
- John Prigge,
- Linda Quezada,
- Lenora Scruggs,
- Bruce Trego,
- John Walters
Gilliam, Figueroa and Walters are incumbents.
Please don’t make comments that are too snarky about the appropriateness of the illustration.