For the first time in my entire life, the act of voting in a gubernatorial election is one I don’t look forward to. In the state of Illinois, the two main choices for governor can easily be renamed ‘Slime’ and ‘Slimier.’ We have two extremely rich men who have not been career politicians vying to run the state. Of the two, one looks like a massive coronary that could hit and take him out at any moment. And with all of his money, it says a lot about what he thinks of his body. When the rest of us go morbidly obese, we blame eating cheap chips and drinking soda as the cause. But when a billionaire who has access to money, nutritionists and health-care workers and the like goes obese, it is not because he couldn’t afford to do better!
After holding my nose to cast my vote for governor, I’ll have to hold it even tighter to vote for attorney general. Neither candidate stood out as a winner to me. But one of them has used some extremely tacky maneuvers to try to highlight the candidacy over Facebook. Rather than make me want to vote, it has pushed me in the exact opposite direction.
I wonder how many of you got the huge flyer in the mail telling you to vote Democratic, and to re-elect every Democratic judge except for one? Well if you go to Facebook, and go to either the Maze Jackson page or Mark Wallace’s page from WVON, you will find that they have listed a voters guide for the judges.
One of my friends early-voted and said it took him 45 minutes, even though he used a number of different sources as references, to get through the ballot. That doesn’t bode well for me because I do like to vote on Election Day. However, this year I am seriously considering early-voting. I work too far away to vote in the morning before I need to leave to go to work, and then coming back home I normally have something else to do. So it makes sense at least this time for me to early-vote.
This election is also known as the midterm elections. There will be a number of senators, Congresspeople and others who may not get re-elected. Unfortunately in the state of Illinois, neither one of our senators was up for re-election. However every Congressperson is.
A reminder, the mayoral election will follow next year. With the current mayor not running, it is going to be an opportunity for a multitude of candidates to test the waters. We need to make sure we turn out in massive numbers and vote for the person who will run the city and control our future for the next four years.
