Readers of this blog may remember a post before Tuesday’s Chicago mayoral election in which I wondered whether a write-in ballot or no vote was ever a responsible choice.
Around that time I read in The Picayune Sentinel, Eric Zorn’s newsletter, this comment from the former Chicago Tribune columnist: “The more I watch these debates, the more I’m inclined to say no, thank you, to these two.”
Apparently he shared my serious reservations about both Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas. I wrote Zorn to ask what he thought about writing in a candidate. He answered, “I would say that it is simply equivalent to not voting. I know that it tries to send a message, but I doubt that that message is ever heard.”
I reluctantly voted for Vallas because I thought he’d conducted a more honorable campaign. After he lost, I regretted persuading myself that voting was more important than being true to my gut.
In The Picayune Sentinel’s first postelection issue, Zorn admitted that he left his polling place having handed in a blank ballot. He has regrets: “What amounted to a ‘present’ vote felt like a copout, an abdication of responsibility and act of indifference to a cherished right.”
Zorn didn’t choose and has regrets. I chose and have regrets. This seemed an election where no matter what a voter did, it felt wrong.