illinois elections: green party candidate for governor

Local elections are coming up soon; November 7th to be exact. I just received my voter registration card in the mail this week, and it occurred to me maybe I should be a little better informed about what’s going on. As it turns out, there’s a Green Party candidate, Rich Whitney, running for governor; from what I’ve read thus far (which I’ll admit at this point still isn’t very much) I’m certainly considering giving the guy my vote. His main spiel seems to be reorganizing the way taxes are done in the state so as to better fund education, universal health care, and creation of new, renewable energy sources. You should check out his website at whitneyforgov.org.

I guess the big deal about having him run (or so say the folks at ABC7Chicago) is that it looks as though he could get a good percentage of the vote (for a third party candidate) even if he doesn’t win, meaning he would establish the Green Party on Illinois ballots. This is important, because it makes running for office a whole lot easier if your party is recognized by the state. Not having that recognition has been a problem in the past for folks in Illinois wanting to vote for someone like Ralph Nader, since you have to enter him as a write-in vote; apparently you have to be pretty precise (making sure to include, for instance, the candidate’s middle name) or your vote will not be counted.

More general election info, if you’re looking at it, can be found at the Cook County Clerk’s office election website.