Comments on: Romney Wins It, Chicago Style

By: jerry

jerry — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 04:12:49 +0000

I was watching Rachel Maddow last night and she she some very interesting light on the Republican primaries. Illinois had a one box preference question. Pick one candidate for President. I think there were a couple of extra names% on the ballot besides the current active 4. Those are the numbers that were reported and those are the numbers that appear in this article. They are meaningless. To actually vote for a candidate and have that vote get the candidate a delegate at the convention, you had to go to a separate section of the ballot and vote for each individual and alternate signed up as delegates for that candidate.

She also mentioned the voting in the Virgin Islands. Ron Paul got 29% of the vote, Romney got26%, making Paul the clear winner, but he gets 2 of the 9 delegates while Romney gets 7. The party didn’t even try to come up with an explanation for that bit of nonsense.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:22:05 +0000

PJB,

“disproportionately” simply means that the breakout doesn’t follow demographic proportions.

By: PJB863

PJB863 — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:04:06 +0000

Tim, if what you said was true, IL would be a red state, but it is not. Democrats have carried IL in every presidential race for the last two decades.

By: PJB863

PJB863 — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:57:56 +0000

Blake, I too had heard that Santorum did not make it onto every ballot in the state, but I also saw that every county had recorded a sizeable number of votes for him. The part of the ballot that relates to presidential and statewide offices are usually printed at the township or county level (townships outside of the Chicago area are usually six-square mile tracts of land).

It’s possible some of the Chicago area townships (many of which are geographically identical to municipalities) did not have Santorum on the ballots (no pun intended), but they would have been few and far between and likely in areas where republicans were few and far between.

Given the problems with improperly sized ballot forms/scanner settings, I was surprised they were able to get these ballots counted and the results certified as quickly as they did.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:57:08 +0000

In Illinois, the racial breakout is
65% White
15% African American
15% Hispanic – any race
with Asian, Native, and others making up the rest

It would seem that racial minority Illinoisans disproportionately believe that the Democratic Party better represents their interests while white Illinoisans disproportionately believe that the Republican Party better represents their interests.

By: Blake

Blake — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:53:33 +0000

My goodness Santorum’s clueless. He didn’t even get the folks he thinks he gets. Check that question regarding church attendance.

It’ll be interesting to see that (new?) question with future primary results & in his defense perhaps these polling numbers are skewed because he didn’t make it onto every ballot in Illinois. Still funny.

By: Jim Burroway

Jim Burroway — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:42:31 +0000

The “other” category includes not just Blacks, but “other,” which typically includes Latinos, Asian-Americans, South Asian-Americans, People from the Middle East, etc. Together, those other groups make up a percentage that is nearly equal to African-Americans in Illinois, but those “others” are not voting in the GOP primary either.

By: Jim Hlavac

Jim Hlavac — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:08:36 +0000

Why do you find it surprising that 97% of the Republican primary voters are white? For decades 95% of African-Americans have voted Democrat. They are also very anti-gay. Perhaps that’s why Obama is evolving — 12% of the population overall is Black, 5% or less is gay. They are concentrated in a few districts, we are everywhere.

Latinos, also pretty anti-gay, in Illinois tend not to be citizens yet, so they don’t vote at all.

By: PJB863

PJB863 — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:43:06 +0000

You betcha 97% of the GOP electorate in IL is white. However, in those urban areas where Romney won, the GOP tends toward the moderate, “country club” republicans.

Statewide, the GOP is in disarray. Blagojevich was indicted and impeached and the GOP still managed to lose the governor’s race.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:32:19 +0000

I will add that I think the upcoming election will be extremely ugly and divisive. Let’s all hope that when it is all over we can get on with our lives and get this country back together with a healthy economy and a safer world with brighter future for everyone ………. even us gay folks.