Comparing 2020 Filings vs. 2018 for Precinct Committeeperson by Township

Inspired by the DuPage County analytics shared by Dave Diersen, who publishes his online GOP Illinois news headlines twice a day, McHenry County Blog shares the McHenry County equivalent.

Since DuPage County has only 9 townships, compared with 17 in McHenry County, the breakdowns by township will be the 5 largest townships, and the remaining 12 townships will be grouped as the “Northwestern townships”.

The committeepersons elected in the 5 largest townships have the added statutory responsibility to determine if a township primary or caucus will nominate township officials for their respective political parties in 2021.

Should McHenry Township voters on March 17 decide to dissolve McHenry Township’s government including its highway department in mid June (and barring court actions), the McHenry Township committeepersons in both parties will not make the caucus/primary decision.

Beginning with the Republicans, here’s the analytics, with numbers pulled from the McHenry County clerk’s office:

Countywide

Republicans filed for Precinct Committeeperson in the county’s 213 precincts:

• 2018: 121, for 57% precinct coverage
• 2020: 76, for 36% coverage

In a recent article, commenter Correcting cited a significantly higher number for 2018. The reason for the imbalance is due to his 2018 number included committeepersons elected through successful write-in candidacies in 2018. Since this is a comparison of precincts where at least 1 candidate filed petitions to be on the ballot for committeeperson, the comparable 2018 number is used.

The 2020 Republican filings broken out by township:

• Algonquin Township:
  • 16 out of 68 (24%)
• McHenry Township:
  • 18 out of 35 (51%)
• Grafton Township:
  • 11 out of 31 (35%)
• Nunda Township:
  • 10 out of 29 (34%)
• Dorr Township:
  • 7 out of 14 (50%)
• Northwestern townships:
  • 14 out of 36 (39%)

Democrats

Countywide:

Democrats filed for Precinct Committeeperson in the county’s 213 precincts:

• For 2018: 62 precincts for 29% coverage
• For 2020: 54 precincts for 25% coverage

In a previous article, it was stated there were 55 precincts covered, but that was in error, since one of the precincts is a contested race, as pointed out in a separate article by Cal.

Now the Democratic breakdown by townships for 2020 filings:

• Algonquin Township:
  • 17 out of 68 (25%)
• McHenry Township:
  • 8 out of 35 (23%)
• Grafton Township:
  • 6 out of 31 (19%)
• Nunda Township:
  • 5 out of 29 (17%)
• Dorr Township:
  • 6 out of 14 (43%)
• Northwestern townships:
  • 12 out of 36 (33%)

Write-In Committeeperson Candidacies

As mentioned in this article, and in detail in an article earlier today, there is still time to launch a write-in candidacy for precinct committeeperson.

To be a valid write-in candidate, a valid notarized Declaration for Write-In candidacy form must be filed with the McHenry County clerk’s office by January 16.

Assuming the filing is for a precinct without a candidate on the ballot and the write-in candidate is the only valid write-in candidate, to be a successful write-in candidate, at least 10 valid write-in votes must be received in the March election.

If the write-in filing is in a contested race with a candidate on the ballot, the winner will be who received the most votes (and in such a set up, a write-in will need far beyond 10 votes to win).

It will be up to the candidate to train their supporters how to properly cast a valid write-in vote for the write-in candidate.

Many times, one sees write-in candidates fall short because they only received 8 or 9 valid write-in votes, instead of the minimum 10.

The mid-January date is just over 60 days prior to the March 17 primary, but with early voting scheduled to begin on February 6, the mid-January date is the last date to file the Write-in Declaration.