Same day voter registration now a back-and-forth politically-partisan battle

We, the electorate of Chicago and the rest of what comprises Illinois, are about to become the political equivalent of a yo-yo.

This 'judge' might make a more sensible ruling than the real ones have done

Up-and-down. Back-and-forth. Some lawyer types may even try to do “tricks” with us for their own legal amusement. While political activist types will guide them for their own partisan benefit.

I’M NOT ABOUT to predict how this will all turn out. For all I know, the situation may change dramatically between the time I write this commentary and the point in time that you actually read it.

What will be the end result on Election Day? You’d have a better chance of placing a safe bet on whether or not the Chicago Cubs can actually make it all the way through the multiple rounds of playoffs to even get to the World Series – let alone win it!

What’s at stake are the laws in Illinois that literally allow someone to just show up at a polling place on Election Day and fill out a form to register to vote that very day.

No more of this having to make sure you’re registered in advance (Tuesday will be the deadline, if the courts ultimately say so) if you have hopes of being able to vote for your pick for president and other political posts.

THE GENERAL RULE of thumb is that Republicans hate these kinds of measures. They spew a batch of rhetoric about how they encourage voter fraud, but the reality is that they don’t want a lot of people casting votes if they’re not the type to be motivated.

I remember back to when I was a Statehouse correspondent in Springfield, one time then-Senate President “Pate” Philip engaged in a rant about “motor voter” (the measure that allowed people to register to vote when they renewed their driver’s licenses).

He said that registering to vote is a simple matter of visiting your neighborhood village clerk, and he didn’t understand why people should feel a need to accommodate those would-be voters who couldn’t be bothered to make that one trip to Village Hall.

What 'tricks' will lawyers try on same-day registration issue?

Actually, I kind of agree with Pate on that point. But the degree to which some people are willing to fight this is appalling. Because it makes it clear they only want certain people to even be able to vote.

THE COURT BATTLE we’re now enduring is one in which a federal court judge from downstate Illinois was found to strike down the same-day voter registration measure, which does not exist in all 102 counties of Illinois.

Many rural counties that operate on a small scale say it would be too much of a hassle for them to have to permit same-day registration. Which was then used as an argument to say that same-day registration discriminates against rural voters!

Earlier this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals based in Chicago overruled that lower-court judge. Meaning that as I write this, you will be able to show up at the polling place on Election Day and cast a ballot that will be counted – even if you’ve been too lazy to register yourself to vote.

But I don’t doubt there will be a back-and-forth as someone is bound to try to find a judge to overturn the appeals court. This has the potential to wind up before the Supreme Court.

THE ONLY TRICK is whether there will be enough time for the high court to rule before Nov. 8, and which side will have the final say. Just like how there always are certain candidates whose ballot spots are being challenged in the courts – and we don’t know until Election Day proper whether a vote for them will be legitimate, or the equivalent of one cast for “Mickey Mouse” or “Lara Croft.”

Because if the “final” say is that same day registration is wrong and the Supreme Court comes in and rules after Election Day that it is proper, the effective result is a victory for those who want to cut off certain types of people from voting.

In my own case, I had to change my voter registration this year. I moved recently, although only to a temporary residence. I expect to be doing another move in the near future.

Because I want to be sure I have a say in this particularly-egregious partisan battle of an election, I didn’t want to take the chance of showing up at a polling place on Election Day – only to be forced to say to future generations that back in the ’16 election cycle, I couldn’t vote! That would make me feel stupid.

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All the polls ask us to reassure political pundits they comprehend what goes on

My e-mail boxes have been getting cluttered in recent days with all kinds of quickie surveys, asking me assorted questions trying to gather a sense of where the mood of the electorate stands these days.
 

Antiquated art, but the voter sentiment still stands

With just over a month to Election Day, and actually only one more week for people to make sure they’re registered to vote, the time is running down.

THE MOOD OF certain political people seems to be getting shaky. One poll I keep seeing in my e-mail tells me how Joe Biden is voting for Hillary Clinton for president, along with Barack Obama. But what about me?

As though they think the bulk of us are going to be lazy slugs who will sit on our derrieres all day Nov. 8 and not bother to cast ballots – thereby leading to the worst case scenario in which the only people who vote are those crackpot conservative ideologues who actually think Donald Trump is fit for public office.

I literally get the sense from all these polls that pundits are putting them out to justify their existence – as though they want some sort of evidence that people are actually paying attention to anything they say.

It’s almost as though they’re trying to create a panic mode that scares us into turning out on Election Day (or to an early voting center if you’re so inclined to cast a ballot that way – beginning Oct. 24).

ON TUESDAY ALONE, I received two such questions – one asking me if I voted in 2008 and another wanting to know if I was supportive of the Barack Obama “legacy.” Somebody wants to know if I’m inclined to be P-O’ed enough to want to cast a vote of negativity.

And, if so, how can they swoop in and take actions meant to negate the effects of such a vote.

 

We could all use this wish in this election cycle

For the sake of disclosure, I must admit to ignoring all of these e-mail surveys, although a part of me contemplated taking the Mike Royko route (remember how the late newspaper columnist once suggested people lie to exit poll takers) and responding with false answers.

Just to make some survey compiler’s day by creating results to mess with his mind.

THIS MOST DEFINITELY is not an election cycle of a candidate hinting at “hope and change” for our society and how we can help accomplish something for the public good by expressing our will at the polling place.

This is more an election cycle of “fear and ignorance” (remember “Bull Durham?”) in which we’re probably going to come out as losers regardless of what the election results turn out to be.

It’s more a matter if a certain segment of our society that used to be able to count on concepts such as poll taxes to keep certain people from expressing themselves on Election Day wants to have some sort of assurance that they will remain the dominant presence – even though the demographics would say they’re not.

Now, we’re getting some states with Voter ID measures meant to ensure that election judges will have enough discretion to keep certain kinds of people from voting.

THERE’S EVEN THE fact in Illinois that a court tried to strike down the measure that actually permitted people under certain circumstances to just show up at their polling place and cast a ballot – while registering to vote at the same time. It was just Tuesday that an appeals court overruled that lower court -- although this case could keep bopping back and forth through the court system as someone hopes to get a sympathetic judge to rule in their favor.

The line of logic for its rejection was that certain rural counties didn’t offer the option. Although that is because those counties chose not to do so; mostly because their election officials contend it would be too much of a hassle for them to bother doing.

It is the reason why I made sure in the past week that my own voter registration is in-line, particularly since I moved from the address where I had been registered for the past several election cycles.

I actually tried the on-line option by which I sent new information to the Illinois State Board of Elections, which then theoretically notified the Cook County clerk’s office. We’ll see if it works – if I get ejected from a polling place that day, that means it didn’t.

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The running mates debate; will Clinton or Trump benefit more from event

Tuesday will be the night that Indiana’s governor takes on Virginia’s senator in a head-to-head competition to try to get other people elected to political office.

For Mike Pence and Tim Kaine, whom most people outside of their home states had probably never paid any attention to prior to this summer, are the running mates.

THEY’RE THE VICE presidential picks chosen by the presidential nominees to be the ones who will be called upon to be the “Commander in Chief” of our country in the event that our newly-elected president dies, or is otherwise incapacitated.

And unlike the presidential candidates who will have two more debate appearances scheduled between themselves, we only give the vice-presidential hopefuls one debate.

The event at Longwood University (a Virginia-based school, I can already hear the Trump-type rants about the bias against his running mate, who is a Hoosier) will give us our lasting political impression of both men.

Heck, for most of us, it will be the first we’ve ever really thought of either official. Which means a gaffe by either man likely will live on forevermore. Just like how most of us only think of James Stockdale (paired up with ’92 candidate H. Ross Perot) as the guy screaming confusedly, “Who am I? Why am I here?

THIS TIME AROUND, the would-be third party candidates weren’t strong enough in the polls to warrant being included in the debates. So we won’t see a Libertarian or a Green on Tuesday.

It’s going to be the Kaine vs. Pence show.

Both of them are going to try to make it appear as though Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are completely rational public officials, while their opponent is a complete loon!

For those who wish GOP ticket were reversed

Of course, both men have some baggage that will make them susceptible to attack. If anything, that may be the issue where Pence is already exposed to heat.

BECAUSE HE’S THE Indiana governor who signed into law that measure meant to protect religious freedoms, but was really nothing more than a law providing cover for people to use religion as an excuse to harass people with whom they disagree.

By now, Pence had better be used to dealing with questions about this issue. I’m sure in his mind, he’s going to continue to stand up to criticisms just as he has been for the past year. So maybe he has the advantage in that he ought to be prepared.

Although Pence’s stance does hurt him among those gay rights activists who were willing to stand up for Trump publicly. It will be curious to see how much the mess of Indiana politics from 2015 winds up dominating Tuesday night’s debate session.

Of course, it’s not like Kaine doesn’t have his critics. He has made his own stance on Capitol Hill when it comes to the Hyde Amendment – which is the law used to justify cutting off any sort of federal funding that in any way would benefit a woman’s ability to abort a pregnancy.

CLINTON DOESN’T THINK much of that measure, but her pick of Kaine as a running mate is part of what makes him a moderating force for those who think she’s too liberal. Of course, others think she’s too conservative – and cite Kaine’s choice as a running mate as evidence of her own political leanings.

It will be interesting to see more liberal interests try to take off on Kaine to try to hurt Hillary; particularly those who may still have hang-ups about the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont didn’t get the Democratic presidential nomination.

The debate location

Then again, it may be the more conservative interests who are in agreement with Kaine who may bring the issue up – just to stir up discontent that they hope winds up backing Trump’s chances of Election Day victory.

Because in the end, voters will wind up casting their ballot based on their presidential preference. Their next debate appearance is Sunday at Washington University in St. Louis.

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EXTRA: No goats inside Wrigley

What with the fact that playoff baseball will return to Wrigley Field come Friday, we’re going to hear a lot of tales about that damned goat.

The alleged reason the Cubs didn't win in '45

As in the one that “Billy Goat” Sianis supposedly tried to take to a World Series game with him back in 1945; only to become offended when Wrigley Field ushers (remember the Andy Frains of old?) wouldn’t let the goat into the ballpark.

THE RESULTING GREEK hex is supposedly the reason the Cubs lost the World Series to the Detroit Tigers that year (never mind the fact that the Tigers were revitalized by the return of their star Hank Greenberg from military service during World War II) and have been unable to return to the World Series ever since.

Am I the only one who can’t get around the fact that those ushers of old acted entirely properly by refusing to let a piece of livestock into the ballpark?

The idea that a ball club’s failure is somehow due to this is just too absurd to believe – even in some sort of fantasy-type of way!

Repeated tellings of the goat tale are just one of the things that many of us are going to find incredibly annoying about the Cubs’ appearance in the upcoming rounds of playoff games.

OUT OF FEAR that saying this will somehow get me banned from visiting the Billy Goat Tavern (the one underground near Michigan Avenue, the others are mere imposters), I’m not up to giving the place free publicity.

 

His 2 home runs the real reason the Cubs didn't win

Which, when you think about it, was the purpose that old man Sianis (the uncle of its current owner, Sam Sianis) had in mind when he brought a goat to a ballgame to begin with!

Let’s be honest. The Billy Goat Tavern has got generations of free publicity from repeated tellings of the tale of “da Curse.”

Perhaps it’s just time to admit the Cubs haven’t been able to win the whole thing all these years because they weren’t good enough – a situation that Cubs fans are hoping has finally been rectified now that we’re well into the 21^st Century.

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Trump one-upped by New Yawk Times

I have no doubt that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is p-o’ed these days at the New York Times.
 

Even the Daily News felt compelled to play the story

Because the New York real estate developer who has made a big production out of refusing to play by the political rule that he willingly disclose his income through public release of his tax returns now has that very information publicly known.

THE TIMES MANAGED to get a copy of the joint return filed by Trump and then-spouse Marla for 1995. The return showed that Trump’s business losses were so extensive that they enabled him to take advantage of tax write-offs so large that he wound up owing the federal government nothing in the way of taxes.

Literally, the Trumps lost some $912 million that one year – which was far more than most of us have managed to earn during the course of our whole lives.

The newspaper also speculates – without knowing for sure if this is true – that Trump may have used similar tax tactics to cancel an equal amount of money off his tax bill in future years.

Donald Trump, the newspaper tells us, may not have paid federal taxes for nearly the past two decades! Wow!!!!!!

ACTUALLY, THIS SHOULD not be at all surprising to anybody in the know. For the very wealthy often get that way by taking advantage of tax laws and exemptions meant to benefit them.

Trump-loving Post thought Mets were more important

Trump himself told ABC News earlier this year, “I fight very hard to pay as little tax as possible.” Then elaborated to a question about his actual tax rate, “It’s none of your business.”

Besides, I’m sure that someone who is as much of a control freak as is Trump views this as a matter of having a right to determine who ought to get information about himself.

Even though most people seeking government office go out of their way to make the information public because they think it somehow enhances the image that they’re (sort of) regular people.

AS IN SOMEONE who actually needs the money from their bi-weekly paycheck in order to cover their daily expenses of life.

Sun-Times relegated Trump tax return to lower right corner

But that is not a role that Trump could even pretend to play. Which is why he so adamantly refused to let anything become publicly known, and in fact now is issuing statements implying that the New York Times is trafficking in stolen goods.

Which is how Trump would like to think of his tax return being. I’m sure he’s anxious to have people think in terms of someone prosecuting New York Times editors with criminal charges for actions that made it worth someone’s while to steal the Trump return.

In fact, by the time you read this, the conservative ideologues who back Trump so vehemently because they think Trump is just like themselves will be spewing that rhetoric so intensely you’ll already have a headache.

THE PROBLEM IS that Trump really is nothing like anyone else – and thank goodness for that. It would be excruciatingly nauseating if there were more than one person with the overbearing gaucheness of Donald Trump!

Not that I expect the people backing Trump will see the tax return to suddenly see these figures and experience an epiphany. Those people have made up their minds long ago, plus the fact that they are so hard-core opposed to the notion of Hillary Clinton. Nothing will change their minds!

But for the real masses who might feel a touch of apathy and believe that there’s no real difference between the two, we should keep this in mind. Trump is someone whose significant wealth has come from being able to use the business establishment rules in his favor.

Regardless of what you think of Hillary, anybody who thinks Donald is any different is being foolish. Then again, Trump has been counting on the masses being foolish all these years to make up with our tax payments what he has been able to avoid paying out of his income.

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End of season really end of Sale?

I recall going to the final home game of the Chicago White Sox’ 2002 season largely because not only did I want to see a final ball game that year, I fell into the hype concerning Frank Thomas.
 

Was it really 'the end' for Sale?

Now, he’s the White Sox’ latest contribution to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. But in 2002, he was in the final year of his contract – and the speculation was that the Sox would let Thomas leave.

ACTUALLY, THAT THEY’D slam the door behind him and be sure to catch his behind on the way out.

That final game against the Boston Red Sox was supposed to be the final chance to see Thomas in a White Sox uniform. Sure enough, his contract did expire and Thomas was briefly a free agent.

Only to see the White Sox make him a contract offer that had him rejoining the team in 2003, and for another two seasons beyond that.

I couldn’t help but think this when Sunday’s 2016 finale came up and was being billed as the final chance to see current ace pitcher Chris Sale start a game for the White Sox.

FOR THE SPECULATION is that the White Sox are fed up with his oft-juvenile behavior. His earned run average (3.21 going into Sunday’s game, 2.97 for the seven seasons he has pitched for the Sox) is no longer good enough to overcome his ego.

 
Or is it?

The end for "the Big Hurt" came 6 years later

I don’t know if Sale is really gone. I suspect it’s really more up to him if he wants to return to Chicago, rather than the team dumping on their top pitcher.

Although I couldn’t help but flinch when Sale let the Minnesota Twins start off Sunday’s ball game with an inside-the-park home run by Byron Buxton, then allowed four more runs to pile on during the five innings he pitched – ensuring that even if the White Sox had been able to win the game, he would not have been the “winning” pitcher.

IT’S THE END of another regular season of baseball, and I know fans of a certain other ball club will act as though “history” is being made. Even though to those of us of the “South Side” mentality (even if we have moved and now live elsewhere), we know all it will mean is that the other team will finally have matched the White Sox in championship achievements this century.

We’ll now enter the winter dormant period (unless we care enough to follow beisbol activity in the winter leagues of assorted Latin American nations), eagerly awaiting both spring training of 2017 AND the coming of the World Baseball Classic.

Will Rick Renteria (right) be the new White Sox manager?

For which Sale could also be a significant story. For Sale has hinted he is interested in being among the pitchers carried by the U.S. national team as they take on national teams of 15 other nations in an effort to show true international baseball superiority.

If Sale does wind up pitching in competitive ballgames come March, the real question will be which ball club will get bragging rights for his international achievements – the White Sox? Or the highest bidder amongst other teams?

WE ALSO GET to see, probably in the near future, whether White Sox bench coach Rick Renteria will be the new White Sox field manager. Intriguing for those of us who remember not only the year he was the Chicago Cubs manager, but also that he managed team Mexico back in the World Baseball Classic held in 2013.

I'm sure Renteria would love the chance to show that his release by the Cubs two years ago wasn't really a sign of managerial incompetence -- particularly if he could achieve it while wearing the Old English script of the "Sox" logo on his chest while doing it.

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Will anyone vote for Gary Johnson just because the Chicago Tribune said to?

It was about a month ago that I, while having lunch with some former work colleagues, made the bold prediction that the Chicago Tribune would wind up eating crow and endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

JOHNSON: Trib pick for prez

It was made clear by the newspaper back during the primary that Hillary Clinton was not an acceptable option. In fact, the newspaper back in March dissed the entire Democratic Party primary process and anyone who was looking there for national leadership.

THE ONE-TIME “WORLD’S Greatest Newspaper” actually backed Marco Rubio in the Republican primary even though it was already clear by that point that Trump was well on his way to securing the GOP nomination.

I figured that since they had so clearly rejected Clinton as an option, they’d have to find some rhetorical way of taking back their Trump hostility. Probably something along the lines of the need to support someone who’d back conservative Republican principles and pick GOP operatives to handle the actual work of governing. Which is something that Hillary certainly won’t do.

Well, it seems I was off a bit. While most newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times that shares Tribune ownership, and the Chicago Sun-Times, are begrudgingly endorsing Clinton (the Arizona Republic out in Phoenix says she’s the first non-Republican they’ve ever backed for president), the Tribune had to figure out its own way of being different.

The Chicago Tribune on Friday let word get out that they are officially backing the presidential aspirations of Gary Johnson, He’s the former New Mexico governor who has the Libertarian Party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 general elections.

IT SEEMS I was right in thinking that the Tribune would not be able to get in line with the concept of “President Hillary Clinton.” But the Tribune, which calls Johnson “a principled option for U.S. president,” is now the newspaper of choice for those political malcontents who wish they could cast idealistic votes.

Will Republic readers care more about coupons?

Although I find it humorous that the people most anxious to find an alternate political party are going out of their way to ignore Jill Stein and the Green Party. None of that liberal freakish nonsense for them.

They’re willing to ignore the portions of libertarian ideology that says laws against narcotics use, restricting abortion and a military draft are bad (on the grounds that government shouldn’t be involved in such things) because they like the idea that firearms restrictions, public schools and taxes, in general, are equally abhorrent.

Natl. Enquirer picked Trump during primary season

That’s what the Tribune has thrown its lot in with, at least for this election cycle. Come 2020, they’ll be back in bed with the Republican Party – which, I suspect, they were looking forward to rejoining this election cycle following two terms of bringing itself in line with backing Barack Obama.

BECAUSE I’M PRETTY sure the Tribune made that decision largely because they knew their readership would revolt if they had dared to go against the hometown boy – even if he was really born and raised in Honolulu (with a stint of his childhood in Malaysia).

As it is, Hillary Clinton (if elected) would be the first Chicago-born U.S. president. But she went out east to college, then followed her husband to Arkansas. Meaning she wrote us off, so they can justify writing her off as a hometown girl made good.

Oddly enough, the Tribune may have got one-upped in their attempt to gain public attention for their Libertarian endorsement.

Because it seems the Detroit News made the same selection, publishing an editorial that, like many other newspapers, apologizes for not picking the Republican for president this election cycle after generations (143 years, to be exact) of having done so.

THEN, THERE WAS USA Today, which came up with its own editorial that didn’t tell us who to vote for. It said we should NOT vote for Trump; calling him “unfit for the presidency.”

Johnson doesn't know 'Allepo?' Do voters know either of these guys?

It really is the trend this time around. “Don’t Vote for Trump!!!” Which makes me wonder how many would-be voters would feel compelled to listen. I suspect the minions who are backing Trump will react with revulsion. Just like at the Dallas Morning News, which said that its “Vote Hillary” endorsement resulted in significant subscription cancellations!

There are very few newspapers (such as the Santa Barbara News-Press) willing to publicly pick The Donald as their endorsed candidate. For two of them – the New York Post and the New York Observer – it can be argued that those publications have relied on Trump’s boorish antics for so many years to generate their news copy that they need a Trump presidency to create stories.

Something has to fill all that otherwise-white space in the paper that goes around the ads for testosterone-production pills that run on Page 17.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: As for those people who are getting all worked up now that Gary Johnson didn’t know any world leaders, I suspect 90 percent of the electorate doesn’t know either – and many probably think the people who do know have way too much free time on their hands. That may be the real problem our society faces these days -- and why Trump does as well as he does in public polling.