I might sound elitist saying this. But I really don’t want you voting if you are just going into the booth and guessing. I love that we can vote. Voting is important. Shaping our democracy is important. Having the voice of the people be heard is important.
But just haphazardly going in and guessing doesn’t do anyone any good.
The message of “Go Vote” is somewhat misdirected. The message would be more effective if it was “Inform yourself.” Because anyone who takes the time to inform themselves will vote. Today I voted, but I skipped the part on the judges. Normally I do my research on the judges and come prepared. However this time around I didn’t know which judges to vote for, so I simply skipped that part. But I bet there are plenty of people who simply check all the boxes, or vote for the names that sound entertaining. That doesn’t help us to get quality judges.
Yes, EVERYONE should vote. It’s the foundation of our democracy, but please know who you are voting for. Gapers Block has a nice list of links:
If you’re looking for some help in deciding on who will get your vote, here is some help from the Sun-Times, the Trib, Vote for Judges, Chicago Bar Association, the Independent Voters of Illinois, the Chicago Federation of Labor, Illinois NOW, the Reader and Windy City Times.
A friend of mine on fb was lamenting the loss of the “I Voted Today” stickers, I had to concur. The only judge retention voting I did was to single out those judes who should be removed from the bench. I think there were 4 total.
Yay Tom! Thank you for your wise voting! Due to lack of stickerness, I taped my paper receipt onto my shirt.