The general elections are now a week away, and for the first time ever, I casted my vote by mail. It was an unusual experience.
On the one hand, I will miss the experience of voting next Tuesday, November 4. I will miss presenting my voter registration card and collecting a ballot from a volunteer, and being handed a receipt upon completion. I will miss thanking those volunteers in person, and I will even miss walking by those people stationed at a coordinated distance outside the polling place, handing out pamphlets for the candidate they are working for.
Heck, I wish I could pass by someone hawking for Bruce "The Ruiner" Rauner. Vote for him??? Right... because a living wage is a bad thing. Good luck planning that pension, dude or ma'am.
So I will miss the in-person experience of voting, at least this year. Yet, after receiving and opening the big envelope in the mail this past week, of holding this ballot outside the familiar confines of my local polling station, and thinking to myself, "Wow, how surreal. Is it legal for me to be doing this? To be holding this pristine ballot in the privacy and comfort of my own bedroom?".... I looked at the ballot, and scanned the long list of judicial retention nominees. And then looked at my computer, then back to the list. My feeling of novelty around this new in-home voting experience departed, and I went into research mode.
See, this is the part that I keep missing, during election cycles... those judicial retention nominees. Over previous elections, I confess to have shown up at the polling station ill-informed about such nominees, wondering afterward whether I had enabled a Judge Dread to remain in power. And refusing to vote "yes" or "no" next to the name of a candidate is the same as casting an affirmative. This was news to me.
This time around, my "no" votes would be decisive. And they need to be, because only enough "no" votes will help evict judges who don't deserve to be behind the bench. With the help of my Firefox browser, I was ready, and typed the search queries "Cook County," "elections," and "judicial retention."
What I discovered is below the squashed pumpkin.
Judicial Retention Nominees
Having had too many experiences of rushing to vote, only to find that afterwards, I had voted "yes" next to the name of a judicial nominee who had received votes of "no confidence" by any combination of the following associations:
AABA - Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area
BWLA - Black Women Lawyers' Association of Greater Chicago
CBA - Chicago Bar Association
CCBA - Cook County Bar Association
CCL - Chicago Council of Lawyers
DSL - Decalogue Society of Lawyers
HBA - Hellenic Bar Association
HLAI - Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois
ICJL - Illinois Civil Justice League
ISBA - Illinois State Bar Association
IVI-IPO - Independent Voters of Illinois - Independent Precinct Organization
LAGBAC - Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago
PRBA - Puerto Rican Bar Association of Illinois
WBAI - Women's Bar Association of Illinois
... I entered my search queries, and found the following link:
http://leyhane.blogspot.com/...
On this page are tables, labeled "Alliance Retention Grids," compiled and cross-referenced by blogger and lawyer Jack Leyhane. The tables list judicial retention candidates, and note the rating each candidate received from the above-listed associations. By going to the link and clicking to enlarge these tables, you can easily reference which candidates had received a negative rating (indicated on the tables in red text).
Having this information on hand, and at home, empowered me to vote against judges whose conduct or manner was found to be unacceptable. This is why elections matter, and this is why every vote counts, but only if I have a vote that is there to be counted.
Another good reason to participate in the voting process, even if you are already nestled comfortably in a deep blue district?
Ballot Measures
Courtesy of Ballotpedia
Right to Vote Amendment - Provides that no person shall be denied the right to register to vote or to cast a ballot in an election.
Crime Victims' Bill of Rights - Modifies the Crime Victims' Bill of Rights by strengthening the rights of crime victims during criminal court proceedings.
Minimum Wage Increase Question - Advises the legislature to increase the state's hourly minimum wage to $10.
Birth Control in Prescription Drug Coverage - Advises the legislature to require prescription birth control to be covered in prescription drug coverage health insurance plans.
Millionaire Tax Increase for Education - Advises the legislature to increase the tax on income greater than one million dollars to provide additional revenue to schools.
Tue Oct 28, 2014 at 7:53 PM PT: Many thanks to the Kos Community for adding this diary to the Community Spotlight series. This diary is for you, the Cook County voter who always forgets to research judicial retention candidates. We now have the technology to do such research. As voters, we should claim this power.