Rowdy masses at the polls decked out in green! Vomit on the ballots! Bagpipes everywhere! Security concerns at downtown locations! Street closures! A paucity of volunteers! Extremely low voter turnout!
All are possible eventualities if the 2020 presidential primary election is held — as it’s currently scheduled to be held — on St. Patrick’s Day: March 17, 2020.
Certain local white Dems are beside themselves. Don’t these downstate Republicans know that the Cleveland’s St. Paddy’s Day celebration is among the most well-attended in the country?
Republicans, who set the date, are shrugging their shoulders and encouraging those who plan to partake in holiday festivities to avail themselves of Ohio’s early voting laws — “some of the best in the country.”
The date, which was incorporated into an omnibus amendment to the state budget, flew under the radar, according to cleveland.com. And convincing Republicans to change it now will be “tough.”
But representatives on Cleveland’s Irish West Side can be counted upon to make hay in order to rile up their constituencies.
It shouldn’t be treated as some great scandal. The biggest hindrance will be for those who live downtown and utilize polling locations on or near the parade route. (That really could be a logistical headache. Locations like the Old Stone Church on Public Square could be closed and folks will have to make alternative arrangements.)
But for others, the timing might even be preferable. Many of the folks who attend the parade already take the day off work and should have extra time in the morning. If voting really will be harder than it would be on a normal workday, Ohio has no-excuse early voting, so folks can show up at the Board of Elections early to cast their vote.
And while we’re on the subject of the primaries, you can watch all the Democratic presidential candidates in action during the first debates tonight and tomorrow on NBC and MSNBC.
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This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2019.
Good!!!
Then finally all of these ma$$ive property tax levies AND renewals that will be on the ballot will finally get voted down!!!
What a Dump, jesus christ gets some new material- better yet get a life.
Next year is a leap year. Leap year calendars repeat every 28 years. And they are also election years. So March 17th fell on a Tuesday in 1992 and 1964. Was there a big green election mess in those years? I don’t think so. It certainly wasn’t the BFD you’re making out of it.
I was a kid in ’64 and growing up in Chicago, which is even more irish and has an even bigger parade. Rowdy masses at the polls? Voters decked out in green? Vomit on the ballots? Extremely low voter turnout? Not so much.
I got paid to gather results after the polls closed and phone them in so that our NBC affiliate could report them on the local news. Everything went smoothly. Nobody even semed to notice it was St. Paddy’s Day. You are being extremely silly. And you’re running that awful image of that same doofus for the third or fourth time? Is this another one of your anti-Hibernian snarks? For shame!
The primary was in June in 1992.
I like this plan. Drunk is the only way I can stomach this list of candidates.
@erin:
Neither the 1964 nor 1992 Ohio primaries took place on St. Patricks day. The 1964 Ohio primary took place in May, while the 1992 Ohio primary took place in June.
Regarding Chicago in 1964, your memory must be faded because the primary election took place on April 14th (not March 17th). Further, Chicagos St. Patricks day parade has always been held on the Saturday before St. Patricks Day (and never on 3/17 unless it falls on a Saturday). So, even if the Illinois Primary fell on Tuesday 3/17, the parade (and associated crowds) wouldve occurred 3 days earlier: on Saturday 3/14.
April 14th was the date in Chicago in ’64. I have a copy of a 1986 book by Studs Terkel (funnily enough, its title is “Chicago”) and there’s a picture of a big fat Chicago precinct captain…vest, tie, fedora, stogie…straight out of Hollywood…and the “Polling Place” sign he is standing next to has the April date. I stand corrected.
But you must not be all that old…Chicago’s parade was not moved to Saturday until the early Nineties.
I grew up under Daley the Elder, survived Jane Byrne, and even voted for Daley the Younger in ’89. No way in hell would any of those Hibernian mayors dream of having the parade on any day but the 17th. I remember a Saturday parade on the 17th in the Byrne era, with kids pissing and puking into the planters on State Street. .what a disgusting day.
Even Harold Washington, who was black, didn’t change the date. But then the parade was moved to Dearborn Street, and I used to watch it from my seventh-floor office window, just south of Jackson Blvd…Daley the Younger made sure it was still on the 17th…but around ’91 or ’92 they moved it to the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day so that the kids wouldn’t get drunk and skip school…and I had to work on Saturday if I wanted to watch. A few years after that, the parade route was moved to Grant Park. It’s been there for about 25 years now.