For once, Illinois voters may not be crying over spilt milk
By the time the presidential primaries traditionally rolled into Illinois in March on the tails of the St. Patrick's Day parade, my sad little choices for the White House always had already dropped out of the races.
From feisty George H.W. Bush railing against Ronald Reagan and his "voodoo economics" in 1980 to upstart Howard Dean, who might have been better off crying instead of screaming, my primary choices gave up before the game even came to Illinois.
In 2004, Illinois voters trudged to primary polling places, powerless to stop the inevitable slog of John Kerry toward his November faceoff with unchallenged George W. Bush.
But a few folks in New Hampshire may make us relevant again. A group of voters only a third as large as the crowd that saw the Bulls lose to the Knicks Tuesday night propelled Hillary Clinton past Barack Obama in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination.
More people live in Naperville than voted for Clinton or winning Republican John McCain in Tuesday's comeback victories for those candidates in New Hampshire. But by stirring the political pots, that smattering of voters may have given us hope that the races still will be undecided when Illinois gets around to voting Feb. 5.
Democrats Clinton, Obama and John Edwards all could still be viable by then, as could Republicans McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and maybe even Ron Paul or Fred Thompson. That makes primary voting in Illinois more important than in past years.
"We've been really busy," says Lake County Clerk Willard R. Helander, noting the number of new voters. "We've seen quite a few young people coming in."
Before the rushing media can use that info to declare the youth movement will sweep Obama into the White House, DuPage County gets a say.
"We just haven't seen it," Bob Saar, executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission, says of the youth rush to register.
In the old days, "we used to pull any county employee who could type" to handle the rush of last-minute voting registration, Saar says. But registering to vote is so easy now, especially for those who register when they get or renew driver's licenses, there is no mad rush at the deadline, Saar says.
Even during this presidential year, the new voters we have might have been lured by other races. Especially in Kane County, where the county board has tight primary races and voters must nominate replacements to vie for the seat of recently retired, longtime Congressman Denny Hastert.
"The (Hastert) vacancy has a caused a little excitement," says Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham.
In the 2004 presidential primary with few contested races, only 59,328 (26 percent) of the 227,101 registered voters in Kane County bothered to cast a ballot. But voter turnout exploded to 71.4 percent in the general election that fall.
While no county clerk expects a turnout that high for the primary vote in less than three weeks, they all look to put up better numbers than in past primaries.
Cook County Clerk David Orr is "very encouraged by how busy the elevators are" at the county's main voter registration office, says Gail Siegel, communications director for that office.
Those who missed Tuesday's regular registration deadline still will be able to vote if they register during the 14-day grace period that runs through Jan. 22. Absentee ballots are available now. Early voting starts Monday and runs through the end of the month.
"Pick a sunny day," says Helander, who notes that last February we had bitter cold and record snows.
After all, you don't want to sit out a rare primary election where Illinois matters.