Today Chicago is conducting municipal elections and, as usual, I’m serving as an election judge in a precinct not far from my home. There isn’t any Internet connectivity in the polling place and I won’t have any time to post, anyway. I’ll be pretty scarce until after 8:00pm this evening and at that point I expect to be a wreck.
I’ll try to post briefly at midday when I’ll take a break to vote myself and to walk the dogs.
I fully expect Mayor Daley and Alderman Laurino to be re-elected. I’d be floored if it were otherwise.
Update
Based on the turnout so far, I’d say the precinct where I’m working will have a 30% turnout. If history is any predictor that would mean a 20% turnout citywide—a remarkably low number. I also understand that voter registration is at an historic low so a low turnout would mean a similarly low total number of votes cast in a Chicago election.
Update 2
Well, the precinct I was working in had a 44% turnout at the end of the day (including absentees ballots). If things follow historic precendents that would mean a 34% turnout citywide. That’s really awful even by municipal election standards. Incumbents were overwhelmingly victorious in the precinct.
Is there any city in the United States where local elections are less important than in Chicago. Is there a single competetive election on the entire ballot?
There are some wards in which there are seriously contested elections for alderman. Not mine, however. Marge Laurino is a shoo-in.