From who do we get to pick Nov. 4?

I found it amusing to learn of the lottery held this week by the Cook County clerk’s office to determine top ballot position for the Nov. 4 general election to be held in Illinois.

ORR: Fodder for conspiracy theorists?

The Democrats came out on top, meaning that for every position up for grabs, the Democratic Party nominee will be listed. Then the Republican. Then, any candidates of alternative political parties – assuming any are able to make it through the political process that is heavily stacked against them.

SO WHEN IT comes to governor, it will be Pat Quinn, followed by Bruce Rauner, followed by whoever is able to file enough nominating petitions that even a rigged process can’t justify jettisoning them.

Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office felt so compelled to show they didn’t rig this lottery that they put a video of the process out on You Tube. You can watch it yourself – although I’m sure those amongst you who want to believe the worst won’t believe what you see.

Just like those people who think the moon landing was rigged, as well.

Orr’s office says we won’t know who the third party candidates will be until some time around August. That’s when the final ballot will be certified.

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE those amongst us who don’t pay any attention to those names anyway.

 

Green Party nominee Scott Summers? Libertarian Chad Grimm? Constitutional Party candidate Michael Oberline (who likes to use photographs of himself in his Marine Corps uniform to tout his political bid)?

Maybe they’ll each get a percent of the vote. Or maybe they’ll combine to take 1 percent.

QUINN: He wins, for now

Personally, I got to meet recently Ilona Gersh, an activist and factory worker in suburban Dolton who says she’s running for governor on the Socialist Workers Party.

SHE SAYS THERE’S so little difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to issues that really matter that people shouldn’t think of the campaign as Quinn versus Rauner. They ought to be looking toward the rest of the ballot.

Then again, she talks openly of her admiration for the 1959 revolution that saw Fidel Castro take control of Cuba and for how Malcolm X is a seriously-misunderstood figure in our society.

Points that could be debated, if people wanted to spend time pondering the issues. Although I suspect most will write her off, along with the other third party candidates. Because engaging in deep thought is headache-inducing.

RAUNER: Will he overcome Cook lottery?

Then again, these may be some of the same people who actually do just vote for whichever name comes out on top of the ballot for each political post. There just doesn’t seem to be any third-party candidate as of yet who is grabbing our attention away from Monsieurs Quinn and/or Rauner.

WHICH MEANS THAT Cook County putting Quinn on top (along with Richard Durbin for U.S. Senate and every other Dem for state and countywide office) may be one of those stupid little factors that boosts the incumbent governor’s vote tally by a percent or two.

Which could be just enough to help him prevail overall.

Because while some people look at the maps and see one tiny little blotch of a county in the far northeast corner of Illinois, that county does account for about 45 percent of the state’s overall population.

And one that can be heavily motivated to turn out the vote, compared to the mass of small counties across the rest of the state that must combine their mass in order to keep up with the support Cook County can give to Quinn – if it chooses to do so.

Third party candidates for Nov. 4 are ...

WHICH IS WHY the Rauner campaign’s strategy really seems like one meant to induce apathy toward the upcoming activities of Nov. 4.

Get enough people to decide it doesn’t matter (or to think like the socialist that there’s no real difference between the two major party candidates) and not to vote, and maybe he can just depress the vote totals enough to prevail.

I’m not about to guess on May 9 what will happen on Nov. 4. We have nearly six full months, and who’s to say what will crop up that will capture the hearts and minds of the electorate.

But wouldn’t it be the ultimate joke if one of the determining factors was a lottery by David Orr held on the day that was Indiana’s primary election day?

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