McHenry County Blog

Most local candidates think campaigning time is over the Sunday before the election.

It’s not over, of course, until the polls close at 7 PM.

Zane Seipler, candidate for McHenry County Sheriff, greets Lakewood's Jane Rule before she votes at the Crystal Lake Park District's Main Beach House. Next to Rule is Eileen Marhoeffer, a pillar in the Seipler campaign.

Today, standing out in front of my Crystal Lake Park District Main Beach polling place was McHenry County Sheriff’s candidate Zane Seipler.

With so few people voting, that may not have been a good use of his time, but at least those coming through the gate were pretty sure to be people on the way to vote.

Pre-school kids play soccer in Crystal Lake's Main Beach House where voters from the precinct north and south of the lake regularly voted until the park board banished them to a back room.

Of course, they could have been on the way to pre-school soccer in the room where I dearly wish the Park Board would allow the polling place to be located.

I just can’t understand how elected officials can think that a handful of kids playing soccer is more important than an election.

Where voters are forced to vote if they live north or south of Crystal Lake in Algonquin Township.

Above is the backroom into which voters must go. It does not show that the park board members value the democratic process, does it?

Algonquin Precinct 19 voters line up to cast their ballots in the cramped room where the Crystal Lake Park Board allows two polling places to operate.

While you see the room virtually empty, there were voters lined up at one point to cast their ballots in the cramped facility.

A snowy Meridian Street (Gate 12) on Election Day.

Turnout was low, which would be expected on a snowy day picked deliberately by the Chicago Democrats who set the date in order to keep voter turnout low so Establishment candidates (mainly incumbents) would have the best chance of winning.

Prairie Ridge High School student Taylor Humm is the election judge handling electronic voting. At 10:30 she had only processed five ballots. Four were Republican and one was for a Democrat.

Handling the electronic voting in Algonquin 7 was Prairie Ridge High School student Taylor Humm.

One final word.

Park District employees remove signs about 10 AM from the Main Beach parking lot.

For those candidates who noticed their signs are missing from the Main Beach, above you can see where they went.  Frankly, I do not understand why such signs are not allowed on election day.  I got so angry the first time my candidates’ signs were removed I went to court and got an injunction entered preventing the district’s employees from removing them.  The district does have an ordinance preventing such political signs.

Isn’t there a yo-yo trick called “Walking the dog?”

This isn’t about that.

It’s about a mother and her son taking their dogs into the Crystal Lake Main Beach parking lot.

It looks like two dogs are walking and two riding in the wagon the little boy is pulling.

This is the fifth of five articles about the Crystal Lake Park District Main Beach Woody show last Sunday.

The Antique Vehicle vanity plate on this cream Chevrolet convertible shows that the wood is ash:

NICEASH

Here’s the front view of the Chevrolet.

Here’s a car as old as I am. It’s license plate is one from 1942.

Here’s another toughy for me. I think it’s a red Mercury. Am I correct?

The boxes in back are quite impressive.

I didn’t get all the Woodies at the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach on July 26th, but I got most of them.

You can see others in

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

If you want to save ash trees, here’s an article that tells you how. I traded treatment of my tree for an ad that I haven’t figured out how to post yet.

It was windy, but warm, Sunday in Crystal Lake.

At the Park District’s Main Beach, there were numerous Woodies on display.

When I went to pick up supplies for my son’s second birthday party before church. On the way back, I was behind this Woody. So after church, I stopped by to take a look.

It appears to belong to Jim and Pat Talaga of Plainfield.

All the cars had similar labels, but I didn’t figure out they weren’t advertising an event in Plainfield until just now.

The sign says it’s a 1947 Ford, but look under the hood and it sure looks like Lincoln is claiming it.

The next car I looked at was a Ford with a wooden surf board on top.

How do I know it was a Ford?

Take a look at the logo in front.

More tomorrow.

If you can supply more information about any of these vehicles, please leave it in comments.

I don’t know if there were the same fishermen I saw earlier in the day, but there were certainly fishing about 2:15 in the afternoon.

They are out from Crystal Lake Main’s Beach.

They might have been fishing in an ice floe three days ago.

As my son and I sat looking at the remains of the ice that covered Crystal Lake until yesterday, he asked,

“How does it do that?”

He was referring to the undulating ice flow being pushed toward the Main Beach by the strong Westerly winds.

I said the broken ice was something like ice cubes.

At any rate, I got a number of photos. The one I think was best on top.

The one my son liked the best is below:

The photos were taken about 4 PM from the boat launching ramp, which was open yesterday.

When I heard that U.S. Senator Dick Durbin’s suggestion that the Illinois General Assembly hold a special election to replace President-Elect Barack Obama, I thought it was an interesting idea.

Certainly, very few think Governor Rod “Let’s Make a Deal” Blagojevich should be allowed to be the only one with a say.

Then, watching a couple of hours of news programs, I figured out that the idea was gaining steam.

House Speaker Mike Madigan seems to have signed on, as have Senate Democratic Party leaders.

And Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna expressed his support as well.

Sounds almost like a done deal, except for Governor Rod Blagojevich and his opinion pretty much doesn’t count anymore.

Any veto would be overridden if there is a consensus among legislators.

There are other possibilities, of course. Before the William Lorimer (R-Summer Home in Crystal Lake) scandal, members of the Illinois General Assembly made the appointment. They appointed Stephan A. Douglas over Abraham Lincoln after the legislative elections in 1858, for instance.

But after the Lorimer scandal in the early 1910’s, Congress passed and state legislators ratified a constitutional amendment requiring direct election of U.S. Senators.

The General Assembly might be able to take back that power for interim appointments or allow the governor to nominate, but require State Senate confirmation or enact some other scheme.

If they took back the power themselves, then a present day Lorimer could bribe Democratic Party House members the way Republican Lorimer did in 1909. Or vice versa.

The logical dates for a primary election would be the same date as the township and municipal primary elections on February 24, 2009. Likewise, with a United States Senator’s seat at stake, the April 7th local elections, including the five McHenry County Republican Party primaries, would have a much higher turnout.

= = = = =
The luminary seen above in Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna. Disgraced Republican U.S. Senator William Lorimer is seen in the black and white photo. His Crystal Lake summer home across from the Main Beach is near the bottom of the article.

When I heard that U.S. Senator Dick Durbin’s suggestion that the Illinois General Assembly hold a special election to replace President-Elect Barack Obama, I thought it was an interesting idea.

Certainly, very few think Governor Rod “Let’s Make a Deal” Blagojevich should be allowed to be the only one with a say.

Then, watching a couple of hours of news programs, I figured out that the idea was gaining steam.

House Speaker Mike Madigan seems to have signed on, as have Senate Democratic Party leaders.

And Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna expressed his support as well.

Sounds almost like a done deal, except for Governor Rod Blagojevich and his opinion pretty much doesn’t count anymore.

Any veto would be overridden if there is a consensus among legislators.

There are other possibilities, of course. Before the William Lorimer (R-Summer Home in Crystal Lake) scandal, members of the Illinois General Assembly made the appointment. They appointed Stephan A. Douglas over Abraham Lincoln after the legislative elections in 1858, for instance.

But after the Lorimer scandal in the early 1910’s, Congress passed and state legislators ratified a constitutional amendment requiring direct election of U.S. Senators.

The General Assembly might be able to take back that power for interim appointments or allow the governor to nominate, but require State Senate confirmation or enact some other scheme.

If they took back the power themselves, then a present day Lorimer could bribe Democratic Party House members the way Republican Lorimer did in 1909. Or vice versa.

The logical dates for a primary election would be the same date as the township and municipal primary elections on February 24, 2009. Likewise, with a United States Senator’s seat at stake, the April 7th local elections, including the five McHenry County Republican Party primaries, would have a much higher turnout.

= = = = =
The luminary seen above in Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna. Disgraced Republican U.S. Senator William Lorimer is seen in the black and white photo. His Crystal Lake summer home across from the Main Beach is near the bottom of the article.

I took this picture last Sunday afternoon.

It was really windy. A gray kind of day.

Leaves had been thrust through the chain line fence at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach.

They tried to get through, but were not as successful as the wind was cutting through my thin Heartland Blood Centers jacket.

Heartland more or less traded it to me, along with a bar-b-cue apron and cooking utensils, for four pints of blood.

I took this picture last Sunday afternoon.

It was really windy. A gray kind of day.

Leaves had been thrust through the chain line fence at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach.

They tried to get through, but were not as successful as the wind was cutting through my thin Heartland Blood Centers jacket.

Heartland more or less traded it to me, along with a bar-b-cue apron and cooking utensils, for four pints of blood.