Posted on 10/28/2010 8:28:35 PM PDT by freespirited
Turnout in polling places in suburban Cook County show that residents in several areas with large minority populations did not vote early.
Numbers released Thursday by the Cook County clerk showed that places like Park Forest and Cicero had lackluster turnout at early voting locations. Park Forest has a minority population of 61 percent, with an African American population of 55 percent. The total population of the suburb is more than 22,000, but as of Wednesday only 747 people had voted.
Cicero has over 26,000 registered voters with 77 percent Hispanic, but as of Wednesday only 921 people had shown up at either of two early voting locations.
By contrast, affluent and white residents turned out for early voting in greater numbers. Orland Park, which has a population that is 87 percent white, was the largest early voting site. More than 5,000 residents voted early there this year.
The trend fits conventional wisdom for the election year, with excitement for the election season coming from older, white votersa demographic that tends to be conservative.
A total of 72,244 suburban residents voted early this year, according to the Cook County clerk.
Democratic candidates are relying on minority voters this election season to fend off conservative opposition. African-Americans voted at 95 percent for Democrats in 2008 and Hispanics have voted at 2-1 for Democrats.
Several of the voters at the board of elections office on 69 W. Washington St. Thursday were from the suburbs. One voter was an African-American from south suburban Calumet City. She said that she voted straight Democratic.
I believe in what President Obamas doing, the woman, Sylvia Davis said. I believe in his agenda and I believe if we dont vote then were just turning back the hands of time.
But the overall low early voter turnout among minorities could signal that Democratic candidates might be in trouble. One political expert, however, said a number of factors could be at play.
David Yepsen, the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, said Thursday this is something new in Illinois politics so its a little difficult to read tea leaves. The higher turnout among affluent voters could mean those residents have more free time to go to the polls early, he said.
But he also said that Democrats have had a difficult time getting its base as excited this year as they were in 2008.
Yepsen also pointed out that in 2006 Democrats won big in Illinois, a year in which several minority areas did not have early voting polling locations.
Courtney Greve, a spokeswoman for Cook County Clerk David Orr, said that suburbanites were permitted to use any polling location in the suburbs or the board of elections office downtown in Chicago, but polls have shown most people voted close to home.
The next enemy of the left: old white folks.
Sounds like 0bama’s epic fail includes his old communities.
Hey, old white folks are easy to kill, and then they can vote Democrat!
Is possible that more than 22,000 mail in ballots will appear by Tues. evening?
I think we all know by the time the polls close everyone in that neighborhood will have voted whether they are above or below the ground.
This ain’t Bama in ‘08. No “walkin around money”, no votes.
I hope that this is indicative of a national trend.
...this means nothing!...on Nov 3 thousands and thousands of Dem ‘lost’ votes will be discovered.
They aren’t stupid. There is no free stuff for voting early. You get PAID for voting on election day.
I check, every time I vote, to make sure my deceased parents aren’t voting.
It doesn’t matter, they all voted anyway. lol
It could also mean that they care more about America than they do sitting around on their fat asses, watching "The View" and Oprah while eating a couple of crates of bon bons.
(I think the dead in Cook Co. are waiting til Halloween night to rise up to drag-scrape their bones to the voting booths on Tuesday)
No reason to vote in Cook Co.
The fix is in.
Sure, white affluent voters just sit around all day doing nothing.
And probably double the usual with how desperate they’ll be for some legit votes...! LOL
They got that covered with his health bill. Elders first hit.
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This ain't going to end well for these Statists
The higher turnout among affluent voters could mean those residents have more free time to go to the polls early, he said.”
Uhhh OK, yeah that must be it. Or, it may be more like we know the yutes aren’t too excited and now their most reliable voting bloc is MIA. I think this could get a fair degree uglier for the dims than what the polls are presently indicating.
Nevada has lots of rural residents.
The lines were out the door & down the block in Carson City on the first day of early voting. I haven’t heard the numbers so far- but it ends tomorrow night.
I know there were alot of voters.
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