Here's A Strange Voting Pattern

While I was waiting to vote one of the election judges was talking with me.  He told me that in our polling place a surprising number of people did not vote for either of the gubernatorial candidates. 

I said, “You mean they actually chose to leave that part of the ballot blank?”

He said, “Yes.”

I said, “That sounds like it would be unusual.  I would expect the gubernatorial race to be one of the main contests for which people would want to vote.”

He said, “Yeah, me too. Pretty weird, huh?”

I said, “Do you have an explanation for this behavior?”

He said, “I don’t know for sure but I think it has to do with the fact that people really dislike both candidates.”

“They dislike both of them so much that they wouldn’t vote for either?” I asked.

He laughed, shook his head in affirmation and gave me a couple of extra ballots just for the fun of it.

So that’s today’s lesson in the pride and joy of Illinois politics.

(NOTE: Just kidding about the extra ballots. I only voted once. But the other part of this story regarding the gubernatorial non-voting is true.)