beamjockey ([info]beamjockey) wrote,
@ 2008-02-04 23:41:00
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A Personal Stake in Super Tuesday
Tomorrow is Election Day, for the Illinois primary.

I've never been on the ballot before.

I volunteered to become precinct committeeman for the Democratic Party in Naperville Township's 23rd precinct. It's an elected party office, so my name will be on the ballot, at just one polling place.

The Democrats have, let us say, a lot of room for growth in Dupage County. They've managed to recruit a whole lot more precinct committemen than they've had in years.

I volunteered for a phone bank last weekend and spent a couple of hours calling voters. I was pleasantly surprised at how many positive reactions I got. We need things to change, and I want to help do what I can.

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[info]liveavatar
2008-02-05 07:09 am UTC (link)
Good luck, and I hope you'll print your victory speech here!

I'll be AFK for most of tomorrow, so allow me to applaud you in advance. :)

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[info]smofbabe
2008-02-05 09:27 am UTC (link)
How cool -- best of luck!

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[info]serge_lj
2008-02-05 11:14 am UTC (link)
Huzzah for Bill!

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[info]erikvolson
2008-02-05 12:58 pm UTC (link)
Don't blame me, I voted for Barry!

(Very cool. Good luck.)

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[info]shimgray
2008-02-05 01:12 pm UTC (link)
Good luck! (and, er, what is a precinct committeeman?)

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[info]beamjockey
2008-02-06 06:47 am UTC (link)
Pretty good explanation here.

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[info]papersky
2008-02-05 01:16 pm UTC (link)
Thank you for doing this unrewarding but necessary task.

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[info]drzarron
2008-02-05 01:20 pm UTC (link)
I throw my full support behind candidate Higgins!

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Congratulations!
(Anonymous)
2008-02-05 01:28 pm UTC (link)
Not Anonymous, just Tim Kyger, without a LiverJournal user account...

Congratulations! Not on winning; I'll congratulate you on that when you actualy do win. No, I'm congratulating you on GETTING INTO THE PROCESS. Something that more citizens *should* do. (Says a political professional of some 18 years...and an amateur before that of about 15.)

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[info]mbcrui
2008-02-05 01:43 pm UTC (link)
GOOD LUCK! For what it's worth, I'd vote for you...

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[info]grey_lensman
2008-02-05 02:41 pm UTC (link)
Good luck! You have my endorsement!

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[info]stickmaker
2008-02-05 03:30 pm UTC (link)


And so the long slide down that slippery slope begins. :-)

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[info]concertinette
2008-02-05 03:49 pm UTC (link)
Awesome! Does this mean you're going to wear a fancy suit and go around kissing babies? Actually, I think such baby-kissing should already have happened... I think it's promotional, though I've never intuitively understood it, I just like the image.
What I actually *mean* is, I am very impressed to see someone I know taking real action, small and local though it may be. Hooray for you!

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Fraud, I cry fraud!
[info]techgrrl
2008-02-05 04:44 pm UTC (link)
Everyone else was giving you congrats, so I thought the blog could use a little variety.

Good luck,

Janet

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[info]carolf
2008-02-05 05:08 pm UTC (link)
Gold star! I am highly impressed. And grateful.

(you done good, win or lose)

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[info]rikhei
2008-02-05 07:16 pm UTC (link)
Read about this on Making Light, and just sent off an e-mail to some old family friends in Naperville suggesting that they vote for you. :)

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Congratulations
(Anonymous)
2008-02-05 11:45 pm UTC (link)
I'm on the ballot in the 32nd in Naperville Twp.
We'll have plenty of work to do in this next year!

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[info]kaffyr
2008-02-06 12:09 am UTC (link)
Thanks so much for being involved - you probably know it's one of my hot button issues, because I generally post a rant about the necessity of voting (and staying involved after that) somewhere every time there's an election. I think everyone who gets involved is a patriot and a hero, so there you go - hero!

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[info]apostle_of_eris
2008-02-06 02:20 am UTC (link)
Good on ya!

What's the ratio of party registrations in your bailiwick?

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[info]beamjockey
2008-02-06 05:38 am UTC (link)
At this time of night, the simplest way to answer that question is to look at the Illinois 96th representative district, where one Democrat is running unopposed and two Republicans are competing. 9347 votes cast so far for the Democrat, 7777 total for the Republicans, for a ratio of 1.2. This is normally a heavily Republican area.

Across Dupage County, 120062 Democratic votes in the presidential primary, 107129 Republican. Slightly lower ratio: 1.12 (but not all precincts are counted yet).

I take this to be good news for the Democrats.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]brian_s
2008-02-06 05:43 am UTC (link)
Good luck, Bill! From a fellow PC candidate, here's hoping we win! :)

For the person asking about what a Precinct Committeeman is, it's the most local party office in a County that has them (I found out that Chicago does it differently, so I'm not sure how Cook and other counties work). A precinct consists of about a thousand voters; it's generally an area that covers maybe a dozen streets in an small area. In DuPage, the county is broken up into 9 townships, and each township is broken up into something like 50-100 precincts (it varies by township). The Precinct Committeeman is expected to walk the precinct to canvass the voters, pass out information on the party's candidates, register voters (although that can't be done when you're canvassing for the party), and can find out if people have voted on election day. That information can be used to call people who haven't voted to get out the vote.

While the position is an elected one, it's only on the party's primary ballot - each party can have a precinct committeeman in each precinct. For precincts that don't have a committeeman, they can be appointed by the party chair. This usually happens when you have multiple people who are interested in being PCs but who live in the same precinct - one will become that precinct's committeeman, and the other can be appointed to another nearby precinct.

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[info]mbumby
2008-02-06 07:03 pm UTC (link)
Good on you! I don't feel I have the time or the wit to do any sort of public job justice. I hope you have the one and know you have the other. And by now you know if you've won and I don't, since I'm way behind and BUSY.

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