McHenry County Blog

There was no contest for Crystal Lake Park Board this spring.
But, there could have been.

The three unopposed winner were

• Larry Wheeler – 1,771
• Paul Myers – 1,745
• Richard Passavant – 1,630

Look at the ballot order below and you will see the advantage of being first and last even on a short ballot.

Those who took out candidate kits from park district headquarters who did not file are listed below:

• Janice Hudson
• Lori Keller
• Rich Sexton
• Mike Shorten

Sexton was (is still) an incumbent.

Shorten ran for city council previously and filed to do so this year, but withdrew.

The room where voting usually takes place at the Crystal Lake Main Beach House.

Keller is Democratic Party Precinct Committeeman in Algonquin Township Precinct 19.  Her precinct votes where mine does, in the Main Beach Building.

Perhaps had she won, the Park Board might return the polling place to the main room overlooking the lake, rather than shunting voters to the back room across from the bathrooms.

I continued not to be able to understand why kids karate is considered more important that voting.

Voters got shunted into the little room without a lake view again today.

So much for the Park District’s being able to recognize that voters might like to see what their tax dollars have bought.

One good thing was that no one was at the gate to collect the Main Beach tax.

I can’t believe the Park Board charges us to get in during the summer.  After all, this is the neighborhood park for many of us.

Not that kids in my neighborhood use the beach, but I remember when my son like to play on the swings and run around the Leathers edifice.

In the foreground you see Caleb Johansen, judge of election for the fourth time. He is doing independent study at home to prepare to earn college credits on the cheap. The other young man is MCC student Jacob Byer.

Two polling places are in the little room. Besides my Algonquin 7 precinct, Algonquin 19 votes there.

Here's the Algonquin 19 side of the backroom at the Main Beach House. The man standing up is Joe Stecker, the Republican precinct committeeman. The Democratic precinct committeeman is Lori Keller, who is the election judge closest to the camera.

At four o’clock 172 people had voted in person in Algonquin 7.

This man, voting by computer, was initiating his son into the duties of citizenship.

51 voted by computer.

There was a full house at the paper ballot voting stations.

121 voted a paper ballot that was scanned into the counting machine.

That’s a total of 172 for Algonquin.

Algonquin 19 had had 200 votes, all but one paper.

Algonquin 19 has more voters, but with early voting and unlimited absentee voting, it’s pretty difficult to figure out what percentage of the register voters have cast ballots in each election jurisdiction.

In 206, the last off-presidential year election, there was a 57.2% voter turnout.  258 of the 451 who could vote did so.

Four years ago, the turnout in Algonquin 19 was 43.1%.  273 of 633 people eligible to vote did so.

Countywide there was a 44.4% turnout. 82,725 out of 186,323 registered voters cast ballots.

Four years ago Lori Keller gave Crystal Lake-Lake in the Hills Republicans a run for their money for the McHenry County Board.

I met her at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach while our kids were playing at the Leathers Park. While the youngsters were running over the bridge, she told me she had worked with President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, before moving here.

When I was writing my article about why the Democrats should slate candidates in District 2, her 2004 candidacy was in my head along with Ron Sloan’s 2006 effort.

I wanted a photo of her, so I stopped over at her house after church.

There was a “For Sale” sign on the corner. If you in the market for a colonial revival home built in 1928 from which you can see Crystal Lake, listed for $585,000, give Tyler Lewke a call at 815-459-5900.

I knocked on the door and discovered that she is working in Washington, D.C., during the week, commuting home on weekends.

What’s the draw?

The Democracy Alliance.

Here’s what the web site writes about her:

Lori Keller – Assistant to the Managing Director

Lori Keller joined the Alliance from the field of education, where she taught college philosophy, English composition and music in the Chicago area.

She served the first five years of the Clinton Administration, 1992-1997, in the Department of Commerce under Secretary Ronald H. Brown, and in the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs during the 1996 campaign.

Lori recently served as a precinct committeeperson in McHenry County, Illinois, was a Democratic candidate for County Board in 2004, and was Treasurer for the McHenry County Democratic Central Committee.

She holds a masters degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis, and undergraduate degrees in English composition and Business from the University of Washington in Seattle. Lori is married to Greg Keller and they have three daughters.

Here’s a short description of what her organization wants to accomplish:

The Alliance seeks to maximize the impact of Partner financial contributions by recommending a portfolio of groups that work together through new collaborations, networks, and productive alliances. The Alliance is committed to supporting groups that advance the progressive agenda through idea generation and development on core issues, train new progressive leaders, engage and mobilize citizens in advancing the progressive agenda at all levels, and use new technologies and approaches to communicate progressive values, policies and messages.

Keller pointed me to Matt Bai’s New York Times article. I hope I found the right one to link to.

The family is planning to live in Annapolis.

Bad luck for McHenry County Democrats.

Good fortune for the Republican District 1 candidates.

Even so, McHenry County Democrats promised in a Monday press release that they would slate two candidates in District 2.

The unveiling of the names and first stump speeches will come Wednesday night at the McHenry County Farm Bureau Building in Woodstock at 7. The public is invited.

Four years ago Lori Keller gave Crystal Lake-Lake in the Hills Republicans a run for their money for the McHenry County Board.

I met her at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach while our kids were playing at the Leathers Park. While the youngsters were running over the bridge, she told me she had worked with President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce, Ron Brown, before moving here.

When I was writing my article about why the Democrats should slate candidates in District 2, her 2004 candidacy was in my head along with Ron Sloan’s 2006 effort.

I wanted a photo of her, so I stopped over at her house after church.

There was a “For Sale” sign on the corner. If you in the market for a colonial revival home built in 1928 from which you can see Crystal Lake, listed for $585,000, give Tyler Lewke a call at 815-459-5900.

I knocked on the door and discovered that she is working in Washington, D.C., during the week, commuting home on weekends.

What’s the draw?

The Democracy Alliance.

Here’s what the web site writes about her:

Lori Keller – Assistant to the Managing Director

Lori Keller joined the Alliance from the field of education, where she taught college philosophy, English composition and music in the Chicago area.

She served the first five years of the Clinton Administration, 1992-1997, in the Department of Commerce under Secretary Ronald H. Brown, and in the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs during the 1996 campaign.

Lori recently served as a precinct committeeperson in McHenry County, Illinois, was a Democratic candidate for County Board in 2004, and was Treasurer for the McHenry County Democratic Central Committee.

She holds a masters degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis, and undergraduate degrees in English composition and Business from the University of Washington in Seattle. Lori is married to Greg Keller and they have three daughters.

Here’s a short description of what her organization wants to accomplish:

The Alliance seeks to maximize the impact of Partner financial contributions by recommending a portfolio of groups that work together through new collaborations, networks, and productive alliances. The Alliance is committed to supporting groups that advance the progressive agenda through idea generation and development on core issues, train new progressive leaders, engage and mobilize citizens in advancing the progressive agenda at all levels, and use new technologies and approaches to communicate progressive values, policies and messages.

Keller pointed me to Matt Bai’s New York Times article. I hope I found the right one to link to.

The family is planning to live in Annapolis.

Bad luck for McHenry County Democrats.

Good fortune for the Republican District 1 candidates.

Even so, McHenry County Democrats promised in a Monday press release that they would slate two candidates in District 2.

The unveiling of the names and first stump speeches will come Wednesday night at the McHenry County Farm Bureau Building in Woodstock at 7. The public is invited.