Early Voting the Ticket for Some Chicagoans

(Photo by Angelica Robinson)

It has been a familiar sight on Election Days of the past -- long lines snaking out of voting precincts and down the street.Today, you can still see those lines -- but now as many as two weeks before the election.

Early voting has become increasingly popular in this year's presidential race, just as it was in the historic 2008 election. With the election just five days away, voters are still making their way to cast their votes early.

As of Oct. 30, roughly 146,000 Chicagoans have cast their ballot early. Various locations all over the city say they have have seen a rise in early voter turnout.

Jim Allen, communications director of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said it is difficult to measure the turnout against the 2008 election because this year, voters had 14 days to vote early, in comparison with an 18 day early schedule last year. The polls opened for early voting on Oct. 22.

"When we compare the first week of this year's early voting program to the first week of last year's presidential election we were up considerably," he explained. "We're looking at the possibility of breaking even with the 2008 numbers which would be great."

Last year, the county didn't have as many voters come out, which could be due to the rather early time frame, Allen said. This year though, voters came in huge crowds -- some standing in 90-minute lines at precincts last weekend in Bucktown -- a sign that there could be few undecided voters, he said.

"When it comes to early voting that usually means that there are that many more people that their mind is made up or there are that many more people who indicated a desire to vote,” he added.

The 19th Ward in Beverly has been the most popular voting spot. This is no surprise to Allen, because historically the 19th Ward has been among the leaders in voter turnout. The 43^rd Ward, whose early voting site is at the Lincoln Park Library, has had consistent traffic during the early voting period as well.

Abby Awosogba went to the Lincoln Park Library to cast her vote Tuesday. As a graduate student at DePaul University, she found it convenient to walk across the street from campus to cast her vote. Although previously she had not considered voting early, it was the encouragement of her co-workers that convinced her to vote early.

"I actually was at work and a couple of my co-workers said they were voting today," she said. "I had an idea who I was voting for so I figured I might as well get it done."

Awosogba described the process as relatively easy.

"It was easy and calm… nothing outrageous,” she said. "I think I waited about 20 to 30 minutes, so it wasn't that bad."

Although Awosogba said she likes voting on Election Day, the convenience of voting early has made her consider voting early again in the next election. And convenience is what Allen said it's all about.

"If you are ready to vote, it's a way to cast your ballot and not have to worry about a scheduling conflict on Election Day," he said.  "You don't have to worry that you have to work late, or about a daycare situation, or running errands."

Early voter Carol Bivat agreed. She said this is great alternative for people who may have conflicts on Tuesday.

“This makes it so you can pick a time during the whole week so I think more people will vote," she said.

Unlike Awosogba, this is not Bivat’s first time voting early. She said last year she came out to the polls before Election Day as well. Bivat said that last time she came to vote there was not a huge turnout. And although she had to wait in a line this year, she is pleased the people are going out to vote.

“It's kind of sad when you come and there aren't a lot of people,” she said. “So I don't mind waiting in the line."

Despite the rise in popularity for early voting, Allen said the majority of the ballots in Cook County are cast on Election Day.

“There are many traditionalists among us,” he said. “And some people would rather just wait and see if there are any surprises out there."

For those who would like to vote early, the Chicago Board of Elections website has an early voting traffic report. The site is an effort to help voters gauge which sites around the city will be less likely to have lines.

Published on redlineproject.org November 1, 2012.

Panelist Say Reporting Key In Covering Elections, Regardless of Medium

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How important is the role of media in helping voters elect a presidential candidate?

A panel featuring some of Chicago’s top journalists and DePaul University’s political experts addressed that question on Wednesday night at an event moderated by Andy Shaw of the Better Government Association.

It was part of the Carlos Hernandez Gomez Memorial Forum on Politics and Public Service series. Gomez was a DePaul alum who worked in the Chicago media.

Dave Lundy, president of Aileron Communications, a strategic communications firm in Chicago, said the mainstream media is no longer just TV, radio and print.

"The elephant in the room that everyone has to discuss is social media," said Randi Belisomo of WGN. "We get so much information from the Internet, which is not filtered through the media."

Lundy said there is more relevant content available on political issues today than there has ever been. The difference is that now is that consumers can choose what information they would like to receive.

“What is extremely depressing as someone who cares an awful lot about policy as well as politics is what I characterize as the death of facts,” Lundy said.

According to Lundy and several other panelists, many news outlets lack substance in a newscast. Too often, news outlets are using social media to determine what is most popular and incorporating that into news headlines.

Digital media outlets like Twitter and FaceBook are not entirely to blame though. According to veteran journalist and DePaul adjunct journalism professor Mike Conklin, traditional news mediums like broadcast, print, and radio, should be held accountable for delivering relevant information on the issues.

"What I would like to see is for people to stop treating politics like a football game," he said. "There's very little in-depth reporting at all."

Michael Mezey, a DePaul professor in the department of Political Science, agreed with Conklin.

"The coverage of politics and the election is like ESPN meets Entertainment Tonight," Mezey said. "It's more on the horse race, not the issues."

Wayne Steger, professor of Political Science at DePaul, isn’t as concerned with social media or the blogosphere's impact on news content. He believes the content discussed on social media is usually taken from mainstream news outlets.

"I'm not sure the social media operates without the mainstream media," Steger said.

Perhaps the reason behind the lack of substance in news reports is a lack of concern among citizens, Steger added. Both Steger and Mezey agreed that most consumers of news aren't paying attention to real politics. Instead, they tune in to sensationalized stories.

"If you ask a people what they remember from last week's debate, I think the answer would be the Big Bird response," Mezey said. "It's the sensational type of thing which grabs people's attention."

The danger of this is that the uninformed public becomes susceptible to misinformation. The average person is not watching media enough to see watchdogs and fact checkers, Steger said. Therefore, voters can be easily swayed by a single event rather than where a candidate actually stands on the issues, he warned.

"If people aren't paying attention they can't be skeptical about what is going on," Steger said. "They can't call out a politician when they change their position."

Steger said he feels people want to hear information consistent with their own beliefs. Politicians are willing to tell people what they want to hear and people latch on to it, he said.

Therefore, Shaw said, it is the job of the media to really dig and find out about the candidates, regardless of the type of media -- mainstream, digital or online.

"Media has one amazing power ... and that's the power to find out something that no one has ever heard [and] change the course of a campaign," Shaw said. "The biggest thing we can do is is to find really important things that re-frame issues and perceptions."