Vote

I’ve been paying rather less attention to politics lately, having been preoccupied by health concerns and such. So the last thing I was expecting when someone knocked on my door last night was a political canvasser. This person was volunteering for a candidate for the Democratic nomination to Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, Kat Abughazaleh.

I was deeply impressed. In my experience, liability and crime and privacy concerns have made canvassing (whether for politics, religion, or sales) unusual and often not terribly productive especially in neighborhoods dominated by multifamily housing. It’s often a challenge to just get access to a building, never mind pitching your candidate to the voters therein.

And follow-up? In the old days, sympathetic voters would be tracked to make sure they voted. Much of this last step can be automated, but it’s been a few decades since I’ve received a targeted reminder to vote and my habitual waiting for election day should make me a prime target.

So for those visitors to this page from Illinois, election day is Tuesday, March 17. Early voting has begun in many of the counties. In Illinois, county election board web sites are good sources of information on deadlines, voting, and ballots. You can find you local county election board at the Illinois State Board of Elections. Cook County is divided into two jurisdictions, Suburban Cook County and Chicago.

For those outside the States, this March election is a “primary” election wherein the Democratic and the Republican parties (and other State recognized parties, if any) nominate their candidates to stand in the general election this November. Note that political parties here in the States have only a superficial resemblance to parties in most other parts of the world. It’s probably more useful to think of them as brands.

Photo / Graphic by Roman.

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