Monday, January 21, 2008
Daily Herald Reports on Write-In Candidacy for McHenry County Auditor
Richard Evans has not gotten more publicity for his write-in campaign since Algonquin Township Assessor Forrest Hare ran a successful write-in campaign for re-election after he was defeated in a 1973 GOP caucus in which a re-count was not allowed.Hare won the election and the controversy stimulate the law that allows townships to select nominees by primary election, as well as the caucus method, which is controlled by party precinct committeemen.
No, I’m wrong.
Crystal Laker Mike Shorten ran as a write-in candidate for governor in 2006 and made the front page of the Northwest Herald. He got 98 votes statewide.In any event, CPA Evans, who once ran for county board, has been noticed by the Daily Herald.
Four paragraphs resulted.
Here’s one:
” Evans, a certified public accountant who runs a tax service and performs risk-management audits as a consultant, was one of seven to apply for the auditor's post in early 2006 after the resignation of Ruth Rooney, but he was bypassed in favor of (Pam) Palmer, at the time Rooney's top deputy.”On the Republican ballot are incumbent Pam Palmer and challenger Richard Kelly.
Palmer is aligned with McHenry County State’s Attorney challenge Dan Regna, as you can tell from her sign placement.Kelly is on incumbent Lou Bianchi’s side.
I figure you win one write-in campaign in ten.
I’ve participated actively in two. Hare won his race for assessor with the active, week daily assistance of Mal Bellairs on WIVS-AM radio and tons of volunteers
But Crystal Lake Jaycee Vance Roberts lost his campaign for Crystal Lake city council when he challenged incumbent and fellow Jaycee Chuck Scott, who was moving to New Jersey, but remained on the ballot
Labels: Dan Regna, Lou Bianchi, McHenry County Auditor, Mike Shorten, Pam Palmer, Rich Evans, Richard Kelly Jr., Vance Roberts, Write-in
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Politicians Impose More Restrictions on Write-In Candidates
Just when you thought you couldn’t think of anything worse that Springfield politicians could do, you find something more outrageous than whatever turned you off last time.
It used to be that if you wanted to run as a write-in candidate, for precinct committeeman, for instance, you just asked your friends to write-in your name.
Mike Royko used to do a column almost every election reciting how many times Mickey Mouse was written in.
The write-ins were a way to show disgust for the politician in question.
Politicians don't take well to ridicule.
So, the politicians decided a person had to register his or her intentions to run a write-in campaign. Mickey and Donald Duck would have a hard time meeting that requirement, they reasoned.
This coming year could have found Goofy a formidable candidate in Democratic Party primaries.
The politicians made you say you were going to run a write-in campaign by the Friday before the Tuesday election.
The politicians also changed the law to require that you get as many votes as you would have had to get on a petition to get on the ballot. I wonder who was threatened by allowing on person to gain an office by writing himself in when no one else had filed.
But that still provided too open a process, so the politicians said you had to sign up at least a week in advance.
Now, the newest outrage against citizen politicians.
The Naperville Sun reports that write-in candidates have to file their intention to run such a campaign 61 days before the election. (Thanks to Capitol Fax Blog for the tip.)
The Will County Clerk figures that is December 6th.
Like next week.
Can someone come up with something more outrageous than that?
All legislators representing McHenry County vote for the bill. Democrat Jack Franks was even one of the alternate chief sponsors.
The vote in the House was 106-1. The vote in the Senate was 38-1-1.
House sponsors were Elaine Nekritz, Bill Black, Tim Schmitz, Jack Franks, LaShawn Ford, Barbara Flynn Currie, John D’Amico, Julie Hamos, Sid Mathias and John Fritchey.
Senate sponsors were Terry Link, James Meeks and Susan Garrett.
Senate Bill 662 is its number.
It appears to be the bill used to make most changes in the election code. During debate no one mentioned the change in write-in requirements.
It was short, rather than full debate, meaning maybe two people at most got to speak on each side of the question.
It used to be that if you wanted to run as a write-in candidate, for precinct committeeman, for instance, you just asked your friends to write-in your name.
Mike Royko used to do a column almost every election reciting how many times Mickey Mouse was written in.The write-ins were a way to show disgust for the politician in question.
Politicians don't take well to ridicule.
So, the politicians decided a person had to register his or her intentions to run a write-in campaign. Mickey and Donald Duck would have a hard time meeting that requirement, they reasoned.
This coming year could have found Goofy a formidable candidate in Democratic Party primaries.
The politicians made you say you were going to run a write-in campaign by the Friday before the Tuesday election.
The politicians also changed the law to require that you get as many votes as you would have had to get on a petition to get on the ballot. I wonder who was threatened by allowing on person to gain an office by writing himself in when no one else had filed.
But that still provided too open a process, so the politicians said you had to sign up at least a week in advance.
Now, the newest outrage against citizen politicians.
The Naperville Sun reports that write-in candidates have to file their intention to run such a campaign 61 days before the election. (Thanks to Capitol Fax Blog for the tip.)
The Will County Clerk figures that is December 6th.
Like next week.
Can someone come up with something more outrageous than that?
All legislators representing McHenry County vote for the bill. Democrat Jack Franks was even one of the alternate chief sponsors.
The vote in the House was 106-1. The vote in the Senate was 38-1-1.
House sponsors were Elaine Nekritz, Bill Black, Tim Schmitz, Jack Franks, LaShawn Ford, Barbara Flynn Currie, John D’Amico, Julie Hamos, Sid Mathias and John Fritchey.
Senate sponsors were Terry Link, James Meeks and Susan Garrett.
Senate Bill 662 is its number.
It appears to be the bill used to make most changes in the election code. During debate no one mentioned the change in write-in requirements.
It was short, rather than full debate, meaning maybe two people at most got to speak on each side of the question.
Labels: Bill Peterson, Jack Franks, Mark Beaubien, Mike Tryon, Pam Althoff, Tim Schmitz, Write-in
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Sutfflebeam Gets 19,020 Write-In Votes, 93.5% of Write-Ins
Thanks to Jeff Trigg’s blog for pointing me to the statewide write-in totals for governor. "19,020 write-in votes The State Board of Elections website is back up and has the election returns," writes Trigg.
"My Congratulations to Randy Stufflebeam and the Constitution Party. 19,020 is an impressive total of write-in votes in a statewide election. Nader got 3,571 for President in 2004 and that is the only write-in total over 3,000 since 1998."
Trigg calculates that almost 11% of the votes cast for governor went for “others.” Most, of course, were for Green Party candidate Rich Whitney.
McHenry County Blog predicted that 87-93% of the write-in votes
for governor would be for Stufflebeam and the sample of counties reporting early proved accurate.Crystal Lake’s candidate for governor, Mike Shorten received 98 votes statewide. 69 were from McHenry County.
Here is what the State Board of Elections is reporting for the various write-in gubernatorial candidates:
Randy Stufflebeam (Constitution Party) 19,020That should add up to 1,327 votes for all the candidates except for Stufflebeam.
Mark McCoy (Libertarian Party) 476
Tim Nieukirk 241
Angel Rivera 134
Albert Sloan 129
Mike Shorten 98
Jack Spani 81
Kevin Bognar 76
Marvin Koch 39
Joseph Krug 29
David Sito 16
Barry Newman 6
William Miller 2
Total write-ins for registered candidates: 20,34, about 6/10ths of the total counted vote.
That does not count the many write-ins for folks who did not register as candidates. You can see an interesting list of Mickey Mouse, etc., at the Chicago Board of Elections web site.
Democrat Rod Blagojevich got 1,736,219.
Republican Judy Baar Topinka got 1,368,682.
Green Rich Whitney got 311,163.
Total for those on the ballot: 3,416,064, if my addition is correct. (A friend of the blog says I can't add. The correct number is 3,486,671. The State Board of Elections came up with the same figure.)
= = = = =
Randy Stufflebeam is seen at my son's 9th birthday party. Mike Shorten's head shot is from his web site.
Labels: Albert Sloan, Angel Rivera, Barry Newman, Constitution Party, David Sito, Jack Spani, Joseph Krug, Kevin Bogna, Mark McCoy, Marvin Koch, Mike Shorten, Randy Stufflebeam, Tim Nieukirk, Write-in
