Southern Illinoisans, where were you Tuesday?

Published on 3/25/02 Daily Egyptian (SIUC)

My daughter announced recently she wouldn't vote when she turned 18. I had taken her with me to hear Patrick O'Malley speak in Vienna the first Saturday of spring break. I was trying to get a jump on my homework for the week, and my daughter wanted to ride with me. We caught up with O'Malley in Vienna, and my daughter decided to wait in the van. For some reason, one of the TV news guys shot a few seconds of me as I reloaded my camera while O'Malley spoke, and I was on the 10 p.m. news. My daughter missed her chance to be on TV. She also missed her chance to double the attendance at O'Malley's appearance. The only people there were O'Malley's entourage and the media folks. Despite the concerns over the prison closing, no one showed up to hear the candidate speak.

We followed O'Malley to his next stop at Bear Creek Ranch, hoping for a better turnout. O'Malley and his crew were hoping to speak to someone, and I figured my pictures would be better with an audience in the background. There were enough people there to make me and the candidate happy for our separate reasons, and my daughter decided to follow me in this time. She was less than impressed with O'Malley and what he had to say, and that was a big part of her decision to eschew the electoral process later in life. I'm not too concerned; I have almost six years to bring out the Republican in her.

I was surprised at both stops at how few people showed up. I was thoroughly surprised at how few people turned out to vote this past Tuesday. Just over 7,500 voters here in Jackson County, or less than 20 percent of the eligible voters. The surrounding counties posted better returns with between 25 and 39 percent. Even in Johnson County, home to the Vienna Prison, only 39 percent of the voters cast their ballots.

Where was everybody?

I'm told that the numbers for the general election will be much better - closer to 50 percent. I'm also told that the different counties are pleased with the turnout. Pleased? With mediocrity, or less than mediocrity?

Southern Illinois wants to be taken more seriously. I've heard all manner of complaints since I got here about the upstate vs. downstate, us-and-them mentality that exists in Illinois politics. And our answer is to sit at home for an election? Seems to me like we're helping breed the us-and-them mentality by sitting on our hands, watching reruns of "The Simpsons" instead of getting down to the polls. Northern Illinois, especially in and around the Chicago area, has us beat in sheer numbers.

If Southern Illinoisans are to have a voice, we need to all get out and be heard.

Now, I know what I'm going to hear next: it was only the primary. And that's true, if you were for Ryan or Blagojevich, Madigan or Birkett. If you supported Vallas, O'Malley, or one of the other now also-rans, the primary election dashed your hopes of your candidate winning. Elections are about choices, and the primaries are a way of limiting those choices.

It's too late to turn back the clock; we're stuck with the choices picked by 20 to 40 percent of voters. And if those candidates decide Southern Illinois is much less important than Cook, Will and DuPage counties, well, they're just listening to what we didn't tell them last week. Maybe in November we can all program our VCRs to tape "The Simpsons" and send a message to the new governor that we are here, and we are paying attention.