McHenry County Blog

Joe Rosner

No surprise there, of course.

The only write-in I can remember that succeeded was that of Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest B. Hare in 1973.

Homeowners for Hare put on a good campaign, which was opposed by the local Republican Party Establishment.

The Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee held a caucus that looked like a primary election. Polling places in Crystal Lake, Cary and Algonquin, as I remember.

All the ballots were brought to Crystal Lake Central High School for counting, which was not completed until maybe 3 AM.

The margin was close.

When Hare asked the judges if they thought the results were correct, he didn’t get a resounding “Yes.”

No recount was allowed and incumbent Hare ran a write-in campaign.

He posted an overwhelming victory, probably in the 2-1 range.

Joe Rosner, who put forth his name so Democrat Jack Franks would not run opponent-free, refused to take campaign contributions, so his exposure to potential voters was limited.

Still there were 1,001 write-in votes.

Under the relatively new election rules, votes for only registered write-in candidates can be counted.

Rosner received 296 of the 1,001 write-in votes cast.

Others were cast for 2010 Franks’ opponent John O’Neill, even though he was urging people to write-in Rosner.

It has happened time and time again.

Uppity voters prevent elected officials from doing something they dearly desire.

Or uppity voters punish elected officials and those officials don’t like it.

What do the elected officials do?

They ask their state legislators to ask for the law to be changed so they can get their way, so they can thwart the will of the voters.

I first saw it happen my friend Forrest Hare was Algonquin Township Assessor.   It was about 1971.

To set the stage, way back then, township government was the closest thing to direct democracy around. The people attending the annual town meeting actual set the budget.

Uppity township electors (that’s the fancy name for registered voters who attend township meetings) in Algonquin Township did the unthinkable. Hare’s allies directed the township board to do something the majority most definitely did not want to do. They put $500 in the budget (a large amount at the time) to sue McHenry County for discriminating against Algonquin Township taxpayers in the issuing of township multipliers. Algonquin Township property was assessed higher than property in other McHenry County townships.

In neighboring Nunda Township, uppity township electors from Porten’s Subdivision packed the meeting. They were really quite upset that the Nunda Township Road Commissioner would not repair their private subdivision roads.

Well, duh, they were private.

Regardless, that explanation did not wash, because the homeowners knew they were paying township road taxes.

In retaliation for the lack of road assistance, the town meeting’s electors replaced each line item in the township road commissioner’s budget with $1.

That pretty much killed the township road program for the coming year.

So, what did the township officials do?

They went to their statewide lobbying organization, the Township Officials of Illinois, and asked that the power to set the budget be taken away from voters who had gotten uppity.

I’m not sure, but I think that may have been the time when the title of the office of “Township Auditor” became “Township Trustee.”

So much for any legitimate claim that Illinois township government as a “direct democracy.”

One of the few remaining rights of township voters have is to approve borrowing for new township halls at a referendum.

This power was exercised with a vengeance the night of April 13th at the Huntley High School Gym. Over 700 residents showed up in person, proved they were registered voters and told the township trustees that they disagreed with their continuing efforts to build a new township hall or buy and remodel an old factory.

That effort by the township trustees came after Judge Michael Caldwell ruled that their efforts to build a township hall with money not approved by the voters was unlawful.   And after the 2nd Appellate Court upheld Judge Caldwell.

Pam Althoff

Mike Tryon

Despite the tidal wave of opposition to building a new township hall in Grafton Township expressed at the Annual Town Meeting April 13th, State Senator Pam Althoff and State Representatives Mike Tryon and Mark Beaubien voted to allow township boards to to lease a township hall or senior center without referendum with funds that are not the proceeds of specified bonds.

Senate Bill 3010.

The bill was introduced before Judge Caldwell’s court decision. It’s sponsored by Bremen Township Supervisor and State Senator Maggie Crotty, a township supervisor, and State Reps. Dan Brady, Kevin McCarthy and Al Riley.

Before the Grafton Township Annual Town Meeting began.

Wouldn’t you think that having seen such an outpouring of public sentiment and with a $3 million township hall referendum on the fall ballot that the state legislators who represent Grafton Township would have voted against such a bill…even if they were allies of the losing side at the township’s Annual Meeting?

Later this week, the township trustees will be in court trying to get Judge Michael Caldwell to kick Township Supervisor Linda Moore out of office.  They filed such a motion in response to her Separation of Powers suit.

Here’s the relevant language of the bill:

“Notwithstanding any provision of this Section to the contrary, any township may, by ordinance or resolution, build, purchase, or lease a township hall, a multi-purpose senior center, or a combined township hall and multi-purpose senior center within the township without referendum approval, if the building, purchasing, or leasing of the township hall, multi-purpose senior center, or combined township hall and multi-purpose senior center is paid or provided for with funds that are not the proceeds of bonds authorized under this Article.”

In the Senate the bill passed 39-4 on March 12th. Two months ago.

State Senator Pam Althoff, who represents Grafton Township, voted, “Aye.”

Senate Roll Call on Senate Bill 3010, which takes the power to borrow out of the ballot box and puts into the hands of Township Trustees. Click to enlarge in order to see the large number of state senators who did not cast a vote on this legislation.

The Roll of Honor of those voting against was small. Just four members:

• Tim Bivins (R)
• Brad Burzynski (R)
• Gary Dahl (R)
• Dan Duffy (R, representing eastern McHenry County)

16 state senators didn’t even bother to vote. Were they confused or just didn’t want to get on the wrong side of their local township officials?

Last Wednesday, the bill was on Short Debate in the House. Under that order of business only two people from both sides could speak.

It would not have mattered anyway.

The skids were greased.

98 voted in favor, 19 opposed.

House Roll Call on Senate Bill 3010. Click to enlarge if you want to see the state representatives in whom you might be disappointed.

I’ll list the friends of the taxpayers who voted against the bill:

• John Cavaletto (R)
• Linda Chapa LaVia (D)
• Fred Crespo (D)
• Shane Cultra (R)
• Anthony DeLuca (D)
• Keith Farnham (D)
• Robert Flider (D)
• Jack Franks (D of McHenry County)
• Paul Froehlich (D)
• Careen Gordon (D)
• Jehan Gordon (D)
• Emily McAsey (D)
• David Reis (R)
• Darlene Senger (R)
• Carol Sente (D)
• Keith Sommer (D)
• Andre Thapedi (D)
• Mark Walker (D)
• Jim Watson (R)

So, much for Republicans being for having referendums before taxes are hiked.

I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Governor Pat Quinn will sign the bill. He has not stood up for the “pee-e-e-ple” in a pretty long time…maybe since becoming governor.

Can’t you hear the township trustees soon saying,

“Referendum? We don’t need no stinking referendum!”

Sunday Northwest Herald Executive Editor Chris Krug wrote of taking some heat from a reader who criticized him in a letter to his boss John Rung.

In response, Krug said he was going to list the benefits of township government.

What followed was nine empty lines.

Of the six comments when I wrote this at 2 yesterday afternoon, most were favorable to Krug’s viewpoint.

The final one, from “hblarson” read,

“Chris: The township is the most democratic of our American institutions. To do away with the township is to admit We the People are incapable of maintaining a democratic form of government. One way of looking at the issue is: If residents of a township are unhappy with their town government, they, as electors, are empowered to change it.”

Larson, alas, is remembering the past.

Back in 1969. township electors indeed had power.

They had the power of setting the budget.

Porten's Subdivision with area in the flood plain shown. Map taken from the new GIS web site.

That year, Porten’s Subdivision in Nunda Township next to the Fox River, which had private roads the Nunda Township Road Commissioner would not repair because, well, because they were private, went on the war path.

They packed the township meeting and lowered each line item in the road commissioner’s budget to $1.

What they didn’t know was the township road commissioner’s salary was in the Town Fund.

So, the road commissioner got paid, but didn’t have the money to do any work.

That same year, electors supporting reform-assessor Forrest Hare took control of the Algonquin Township meeting  at Eastview Grade School on Route 62.

The pesky homeowners, who were fed up with being assessed by the county supervisor of assessments at a higher level than elsewhere in McHenry County, inserted $500 in the budget to sue for equity.

$500 was a big number then.

The Algonquin Township attorney managed to spend the $500 without filing suit, so nothing substantive came of the action.

Except…

Except, township officials asked the Illinois General Assembly to change state law so uppity citizens would have no say on the budget.

Instead all the decisions henceforth would be made by the township auditors (the name changed later to “trustees”).

So commenter Larson, direct democracy died about 1970.

Grafton Township meeting as seen from the western part of the gym before the momentous meeting began.

Annual Town Meetings now have very little substance to them, despite the Grafton Township exception this year.

In fact, it would surprise me not one bit if the Township Officials of Illinois lobbyists were not at this very moment trying to change township law to remove the requirement that voters have to approve borrowing money to build township buildings.

That would overturn the law made by 2nd Appellate Justices in the Grafton Township case last year.

Ancel Glink Partner Robert Bush

Just this year, some Grafton Township citizens petitioned to have votes on whether to fire the township attorney, Ancel Glink.

Ancel Glink Partner Rob Bush ruled that township electors did not have that power, so the question could not be put on the Annual Town Meeting agenda.

So sad, attorneys are hired and fired only by township boards.

Firing the new Township Administrator was also ruled to be none of the township electors’ business.

And that revolutionary idea of requiring Robert’s Rules of Order at all township board meetings, well, in that matter, too, the electors were irrelevant.  (Now, Grafton township meetings often resemble a free for all, the board having set themselves from Robert’s Rules of Order.)

So, Mr. or Mrs. Larson, the next time you try to defend township government because it is some Athenian democratic ideal, please don’t.

Just as “American Pie” relates the “day the music died,” direct democracy died in township government decades ago.

Now, township boards run the show pretty much as city councils do.  And as county boards do.  And as school boards.

Nothing very special about the way townships are governed.

McHenry County Blog has some thoughtful thinkers.

One has posted the comment below under the last article.

Grafton Township Board, from left to right, Trustees Gerry McMahon, Betty Zirk, Rob LaPorta, Barb Murphy and Superviosr Linda Moore.

Certainly people are talking about abolishing Grafton Township.   Two trustees have told me that might even favor the idea. I found one at last night’s meeting who had inquired how to do it by petition and referendum.

Grafton Township Road Commissioner confers with his attorney Pat Coen about how to unwind the deal that had the Road District buy the township hall in order to find money to build a new township hall on Haligus Road. Now, at least Trustee Gerry McMahon wants to keep the money, have township voters who attend the April 13th Annual Meeting legally authorize the purchase of the Haligus Road property from the Village of Lake in the Hills, then sell that land, using both sources of money to buy and remodel a vacant building to house township offices other than the Road District's. Township electors on April 13th will have the last word. The effort would nullify any results from the court-order referendum this fall about proceeding with the new $3.5 million *over $5 million with interest) township hall

I asked Road Commissioner Jack Freund how abolishing the township would affect his operation.

His basic answer was that it wouldn’t. That’s because the Road District is a separate municipal corporation.

And the Assessor’s Office?

Well, someone has to do the work. It might end up under county jurisdiction. After all, the County Supervisor of Assessments is charged with assessing all property.

What would happen to Assessor Bill Ottley and his employees?

Since Ottley has the most uniform assessments in McHenry County (the last time I looked), he would undoubtedly head up the operation.

Where would the office be?

Probably right where it is or in some other area space rented by the county. Ottley could probably even find a great deal in this economy.

Another possibility occurs to me.  The bill I sponsored back in the 1970′s to create the office of Multi-Township Assessor could be modified to allow for the election of such an official from a neighboring township, plus Grafton Township.  An analysis by then-Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare convinced me that bad (defined as having a large margin of error) assessments were much, much more likely to occur in townships with less than 5,000 people than those larger.  The reason, I believe, is that larger townships could afford a full-time assessor.  I guess the still existing township board would handle the bill paying and oversight functions.

Then, there’s the other services that Grafton Township provides.

For starters, people should know that virtually all such services were permitted by law at the request of township officials trying to justify their existence.

Townships have only three mandated functions:

• Maintaining some local roads
• Assessing property
• Administering General and Emergency Assistance

All the rest are add-ons.

However, let’s say bus service for seniors and the handicapped is considered by the community to be necessary.

I would note that senior bus service is provided by the Road Commissioner in Algonquin Township. The same could happen in Grafton Township, if Freund were amenable to the idea.

Gus Philpott, in his Woodstock Advocate, suggests there may be a much cheaper way to provide transportation services to seniors and the disabled. Subsidize taxis and handicapped equipped vans. Or subsidize PACE, I would add.

Since most of the service is provided Huntley residents, the village itself could even assume the responsibility.

Bingo can be run by any entity. The same with helping with handicapped vehicle hangers and handing out batteries for hearing aids.

The food pantry is already off on its own. The subsidies of the past are over, if not accounted for.

The General and Emergency Assistance is minimum. I believe one of the last year’s of former Grafton Township Supervisor John Rossi’s administration is was about $12,000. I guess the area would operate the same way the one-third of Illinois counties do now. There are no townships in Southern Illinois.

Compare that to the $16,000 in legal bills for Ancel, Glink last month.

When would the township go out of business if such a referendum were put on the ballot and passed?

I can’t tell you. I think I remember some provision that says elected officials serve out their terms.

Too much from me. Here’s the reader comment:

“Dear” Grafton Township Elected Officials and “Hired” (more like appointed) Employee(s),

The money you are so droolingly intent on spending for Your WANTS not NEEDS is OTHER PEOPLE’S money.  It’s not your private little world and check book.  It doesn’t matter if you are taxing $5 or $200 dollars, you are still taxing.

Stop trying to grow what some people consider a no longer needed layer of govt. BIGGER.  In Grafton, it would make sense to allow other govt. entities to absorb most or all of what Grafton does.

There are plenty of places for bingo, food pantires, meeting rooms, yada yada yada and they are spread across Grafton Township – not just in Huntley.  Certain types of transportation services can be worked out with local Taxi companies eliminating the need to own vehicles/buses, pay for gas, labor, insurance, upkeep, schedulers, etc.

If you absolutely MUST MUST MUST have Grafton Township’s name on such things instead of cooperating with others, then RENT them.  The events would still be called Grafton Township Bingo but it doesn’t require a multi million dollar building and loan interest.  I repeat, it’s far cheaper than a multi-million building and loan interest.

Trying to recreate the wheel and sliced bread in this case sure seems to be  ego driven.  The way it’s being handled reminds me of Washington DC/Chicago tactics.

NOTE:  Huntley isn’t a small place anymore.  Have the elected and “hired” people not noticed? Perhaps when it was small, there was a dream in someone’s mind to make the Township more important, provide missing services, and so on.  That was then.  ”We” aren’t living in “then” anymore.  Grafton Twp. elected officials and “hired” employees, are YOU still living in the “then” in the “dream”?  If so, as one movie character once succinctly said “Snap out of it!”

Is someone looking to have their name engraved on a room, a program, ………….a political ballot?

“This is nothing, absolutely nothing,”

Northwest Herald reporter Amber Krosel quotes newly-sworn in Grafton Township Trustee Gerry McMahon at Thursday night’s meeting.

This was the same day that McMahon and his fellow trustees were given their third McHenry County Court smackdown concerning their illegal attempts to build a new township building.

McMahon was giving a lecture about how insignificant the taxpayer meerkat’s concern about paying for the over $5 million new township hall the township trustees are trying to shove down their throats.

The cost was so small. It was like comparing a meerkat to an elephant. That’s what McMahon argued.

What McMahon just can’t comprehend is that the meerkat taxpayers might just want to be asked their permission before being put in debt for $5 million.

The “trust me” argument from public officials went out of style with President Jimmy Carter.

President Ronald Reagan brought the “trust, but verify” method of dealing with the Soviet Union.

Ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich and other crooked and arrogant Illinois state and local officials have brought citizens to the stage of

The surface reason for issuing the over $5 million in debt is that current township facilities are inadequate.

But the real reason is that if the township board even doesn’t take as much money as it can get, it forever will lose whatever that stream of income is.

It’s a function of the tax cap, which allows local governments to take from us what they got last year, plus the increase in the cost of living.

If a district ever takes less than the maximum allowed, its “base” is lower for the next year and every year thereafter.

Oh how I wish there were more public officials who did not adhere to the

philosophy.

Township Assessor Bill Ottley gave me this insight after the annual town meeting while inquiring why I, who lives right across the township line in Algonquin Township, cared about what Grafton Township was doing.

Proponents of the debt certificate financing scheme the township trustees are trying to put in place argue that taxes will not go up.

What they mean is that tax bills will remain the same. They won’t be higher than they already are.

There most certainly will be more taxes extracted from Grafton Township taxpayers.

You can’t pay back more than $5 million without someone’s pocketbook being lighter than it would be without bearing that burden.

But, proponents keep arguing,

Daily Herald reporter Jeffrey Gaunt suggests such a pitch is worthy of a used car salesman.

But as Gaunt so persuasively wrote about the Carpentersville School District 300 referendum in January 2006:

“It’s a little like tacking 10 years onto a five-year prison sentence. You’re already in prison, the argument goes, so what’s a few more years.”

In Grafton Township’s case, it’s tacking on 20 years.

For argument’s sake, let’s say the impact on Grafton Township tax bills is too small to worry about.

Is anything else wrong with the town hall picture?

I can think of two things.

The first concerns the democratic process.

Township government is supposed to be, but is less and less, the government of the people.

I can remember when uppity township electors wrote in $1 for each line item in the Nunda Township Road Commissioner’s budget. I think the commissioner was Leroy Geske. That was around 1970.

Residents of a private subdivision road wanted township taxpayers to improve it, but the township road commissioner, citing state law, refused.

Retaliation didn’t deprive him of his salary because it’s in the Town Fund.

That was the same year that Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare’s supporters added $500 in legal fees to sue the McHenry County Supervisor of Assessments Willard Hogge for having equalized Algonquin Township’s property values higher than they should have been.

The township attorney frittered away the money telling the township board, which did not want the suit to go forward, why it couldn’t be done.

The Illinois General Assembly, always being responsive to township officials, plugged that hole.

It prohibited electors from voting on budgets.

The second reason will be addressed tomorrow.

= = = = =
The other articles in this series are can be found here:

The Skunk, the Meerkats and the Elephant – Part 1

The Skunk, the Meerkats and the Elephant – Part 3

when I saw the Chicago Tribune editorial on McHenry County’s former Democratic State Representative Tom Hanahan, I sent his and my former State Senator Jack Schaffer an email asking for his memories. It gave me two of the five belly laughs that everyone should have every day to keep healthy. It follows:

Sorry Cal, I don’t check my emails as often as I should.

I did have an opportunity to talk to Tommy about a week before he died. While you could tell the disease was getting to him, you could also tell that the old Tommy was still there. You are right, I do have a lot of memories of Tommy.

In 1974 when the RTA was being created, I was a little curious as to what Tom was going to do about it because the labor unions were very much for the new unit of government and Tom was first and foremost a labor guy.

He must have convinced his leaders that he had to oppose it or he wouldn’t be back (a very accurate perception), which led to a very unusual election in that primary with the four of us; Tommy, you, Bruce and I out stomping against the RTA.

I recall one meeting in Crystal Lake (at the Nature Center) at which all 4 of us took different approaches as to why the RTA was evil – Tommy said it was bad for working men and women. As the meeting broke up a proponent for the RTA, who I knew, thought the four of us had covered every negative angle he could think of against the RTA.

The crowd was so hostile, I felt the need to walk the proponent back to his car. And as you know, 90%+ of the voters voted no with the largest primary turnout in history.

Another time, Tom and I were working on a piece of legislation to give homeowners property tax breaks if they improve their homes, or put an addition on.

I got wind, through a friend in the Dept. of Rev., that the Dept. was about to adopt rules that would require three inspections to qualify for the exemption.

I got hold of Tommy and we both went to see the Director of the Dept of Rev. I don’t recall that I got 5 words in during the meeting but Tom did such a war dance on his desk and threatened him and his descendents…the rule came out with a simple procedure.

During the RTA fights, we came up with the idea to send Gov. Walker petitions signed by people in the area opposing the RTA.

The problem was Tom got along with the democratic Governor Walker no doubt about as well as Jack Franks did with democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich…probably for some of the same reasons.

Governor Walker indicated he’d be happy to meet with me but refused to meet with Tom.

So we issued press release saying that opposition in McHenry County was bipartisan and if the Governor wouldn’t meet with Tommy then I wouldn’t meet with him either.

You’ve already talked about Tommy’s famous/infamous (choose your own word) opposition to the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment), but one of the things that I do definitely remember the time during candidates nights when the speeches and Q & A were over;

• you would be in the corner talking about property tax assessment,
• Bruce in another corner discussing creeping socialism,
• I would be talking with a group about Mental Health and the state budget, and
• Tommy would be in the front of the room talking to every good looking woman there about the ERA with a huge grin on his face.

It’s almost impossible today to explain the cumulative voting system that allowed for a minority party member in every district, and while the system certainly had its flaws, we did see some incredible individuals elected because of it.

And Tommy Hanahan was one of those.

About the only thing Tommy and I had in common was the same constituency and because of that we worked together fairly well.

I doubt we’ll see his likes again.

Thanks for letting me share some of my thoughts with you (it’s more than the local paper did!!!!!)!

The pamphlet printed on my father’s offset printing machines–180,000, maybe more–can be seen interspersed throughout the article. The little kNOw RTA clip-on button, front and back, is also shown.

Other stories about Tom Hanahan:

Johnsburg Democratic Party State Rep. Tom Hanahan Dies – Part 1

Johnsburg Democratic Party State Rep. Tom Hanahan Dies – Part 2

More Memories on McHenry County’s State Rep. Tom Hanahan

Jeff Ladd Calls for RTA Tax Hike

The Wiring of Rep. Pete Pappas

There are six people who figured out sixty days before the election that they could run a write-in campaign and registered such an intention with the county clerk. That’s what a new state law requires.

Two of the six write-in contests are sure winners.

Jeff Mason has filed to run as a write-in candidate for the Crystal Lake Grade School District. Two people are running and three seats are available. With one, vote Mason will elect himself.

Similarly, Stacy Iwanicki, a write-in candidate for the Rural Woodstock Public Library District, will get elected because there are three 6-year seats and only two candidates on the ballot. That’s assuming she votes for herself.

As mentioned in a previous article, Dan Ziller, Jr., is running an independent campaign against the four township trustee candidates nominated at the Republican primary election.

He has a real campaign with a phone call survey campaign and, late this week, a post card based on his opposition to the $3.5 million township hall pushed by John Rossi and the incumbent township trustees. Rossi was narrowly defeated by Linda Moore, largely on her opposition to the new township hall.

You can see the post card here. Click to enlarge.

Ziller has a real campaign. Look at his endorsements:

• Mayor Chuck Sass, President of the Village of Huntley
• Paul Mercer, Huntley Village Trustee
• Niko Kanakaris, Village of Huntley Trustee
• Scott Breeden, McHenry County Board Member
• Mary McCann, McHenry County Board Member

But let me point out that Chicago Sun-Times political reporter Lynn Sweet said my 2002 campaign for governor against Rod Blagojevich and Jim Ryan was “a real campaign.”

That got me 2% of the vote and I was on the ballot.

The same problem of a write-in running against people on the ballot faces Greenwood Township Road Commissioner candidate Tom Borta.

From looking at signs throughout Greenwood Township, I can tell you he has a “real campaign.” Besides this homemade one, there are professionally printed yard signs.

But Borta has three opponents on the ballot:

• Tom Ganka
• Donald Goad
• Thomas Wise

They also have “real campaigns.”

There are two write-in candidacies in the hotly contested Island Lake village election. Former village trustee Sally Fleissner is running for mayor against John Ponio and Debbie Herrmann. Both are village trustees. Herrmann is an ally of outgoing Mayor Tom Hyde. Ponio has been one of Hyde’s strongest critics. David Meeks is running for trustee against six others who are on the ballot. I don’t know what kind of a campaign the write-ins are waging, but the two factions have full slates on the ballot and seem likely to wipe out the write-ins.

I will repeat, for a write-in to run against someone on the ballot is almost unheard of.

The story of the most famous McHenry County write-in victory, that of Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest B. Hare’s 1973 re-election victory, is contained in these two articles:

To Let People Vote in Township Primaries or Not – Part 1

To Let People Vote in Township Primaries or Not – Part 2

The candidates nominated in the Grafton Township Republican primary election don’t have any opposition on the ballot, but Dan Ziller, Jr., is running one of the more high profile write-in candidacies in recent memory.

Early last week, there was an automated telephone survey asking Grafton Township residents if they favored building a new $3.5 million township building.

A second question asked if people wanted an opportunity to vote on the issue in a referendum.

Only after the two questions, did listeners learn that the robo-calls were connected to a write-in campaign for township trustee for Dan Ziller, Jr.

You may remember that Linda Moore based her campaign to oust Supervisor John Rossi on her opposition to that proposal.

Rossi has not used his control of the issue on the current township board to push the issue.

Across from the Lakewood Village Hall, I found the sign you see here.

It says,

Not a bad sign, in fact, an excellent color choice for a snowy background, but Grafton Township is a big one. It will take a lot of signs to get the message across.

I have observed only one successful write-in campaign in my political life.

It was Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare’s re-election campaign in 1973. He had been ousted (of maybe not, because no recount was allowed) by 3 votes in a township caucus in which the exhausted judges finished counting paper ballots in mid-morning darkness. Hare won the write-in with about 60% of the vote in an intensively organized campaign and radio support virtually every weekday from WIVS-AM talk show host Mal Bellairs, who incensed that the Algonquin Township Republican Central Committee would not allow a recount.

The details are contained in these articles:

To Let People Vote in Township Primaries or Not – Part 1

To Let People Vote in Township Primaries or Not – Part 2

It should be noted that none of the Democrats running for Algonquin or Nunda Township office were nominated at the ballot box. All were picked in party caucuses on one of the coldest nights of the winter.

You’d think there was a hot primary election in Grafton Township today.

There were mailing from both incumbent John Rossi and challenger Linda Moore.

Both distributed literature door-to-door.

Moore had made phone calls on Wednesday, Friday, Monday and today.

I’d post a picture of the Chezak Elementary School polling place for three precincts at 11:45 this morning, but I have uploaded so many photos onto Google’s Blogger that now I must pay an annual fee.

I paid it yesterday afternoon, but, apparently, it has not been processed yet, so please imagine a big room that is empty, except for bored judges from three big precincts.

Grafton Township Precinct 12 had 24 voters, Grafton 19 a mere 5 voters and Grafton 20 – 10 voters.

39 in all.

My own precinct is numbered Algonquin Township 7. I was the fifth voter at 3:30 this afternoon before picking up my son. I think Algonquin 19 had twelve.

And, coincidence of coincidences, both Algonquin 19′s GOP committeeman Joe Stecker and I were voting at the same time. Both of our polling places are at the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach House.

The judges couldn’t get past the front gate until 6:30 AM. It was cold standing outside trying to find someone with a key.

And the one they found?

The park district employee with the snow blower.

The judges didn’t indicate that anyone was disappointed in not being able to vote that early.

And, why are there township primaries?

In a sentence, incumbent Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare’s overwhelming write-in defeat of the winner of the 1973 Republican Township caucus in 1973. Details are in these stories:

Democrats in Nunda and Algonquin Township selected their candidates in caucuses on pretty much the coldest night of the year. Don’t know how many people showed up at each, but I’ll bet it was not many.

You’d think there was a hot primary election in Grafton Township today.

There were mailing from both incumbent John Rossi and challenger Linda Moore.

Both distributed literature door-to-door.

Moore had made phone calls on Wednesday, Friday, Monday and today.

I’d post a picture of the Chezak Elementary School polling place for three precincts at 11:45 this morning, but I have uploaded so many photos onto Google’s Blogger that now I must pay an annual fee.

I paid it yesterday afternoon, but, apparently, it has not been processed yet, so please imagine a big room that is empty, except for bored judges from three big precincts.

Grafton Township Precinct 12 had 24 voters, Grafton 19 a mere 5 voters and Grafton 20 – 10 voters.

39 in all.

My own precinct is numbered Algonquin Township 7. I was the fifth voter at 3:30 this afternoon before picking up my son. I think Algonquin 19 had twelve.

And, coincidence of coincidences, both Algonquin 19′s GOP committeeman Joe Stecker and I were voting at the same time. Both of our polling places are at the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach House.

The judges couldn’t get past the front gate until 6:30 AM. It was cold standing outside trying to find someone with a key.

And the one they found?

The park district employee with the snow blower.

The judges didn’t indicate that anyone was disappointed in not being able to vote that early.

And, why are there township primaries?

In a sentence, incumbent Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare’s overwhelming write-in defeat of the winner of the 1973 Republican Township caucus in 1973. Details are in these stories:

Democrats in Nunda and Algonquin Township selected their candidates in caucuses on pretty much the coldest night of the year. Don’t know how many people showed up at each, but I’ll bet it was not many.