-=> bob klahn wrote to DAN CEPPA <=-

 DC> I like that idea!  All too often, the voters don't bother
 DC> to really check out who they are voting for. They tend to
 DC> vote along party lines. At one pont, it was possible to
 DC> pull a single lever and vote for the entire ticket of a
 DC> particular party.  That system was gone before I was able
 DC> to vote.  But, I was in the voting booths at an earlier age
 DC> when that was still possible.

 bk>  I did that once. In Illinois, in '71 I think. A state election,
 bk>  due to a screw up in a change in the law every state legislator
 bk>  was running statewide. Well over a hundred. I had just gotten
 bk>  out of the service, and I didn't have time to learn much of
 bk>  anything about them. Ok, maybe it was '72.

That was the first general election after the 1970 constitution (still the
current document)was adopted doing away with "cumulative" voting
where voters
in each district voted for 1, 2, or 3 candidates for the legislature. If one
voted for just one candidate that person got all three of your votes - so it
was possible for a popular legislator to have a total of votes that was greater
than the number of voters in his district ... without voting the Chicago
graveyards.

What happened was that when the new constitution was ratified there was no time
to apportion legislative districts ... so all legislature candidates ran "at
large" and statewide.

I just voted for my local people ... but, it took some searching to do so. Much
easier to just tick the "Straight Donkey" or "Straight
Elephant" box or lever.

That was the year that Dan Walker, a maverick Democrat, got elected as Governor
and I got a cushy (more or less) job running a print shop for the Illinois
Department of Agriculture.

... If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything-Bill
yon
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