It's Opening Day....

This morning, everything is new again. Nobody has lost. Nobody has been challenged. There are all sorts of new candidates to hear from. And I'll be looking at the postings on the ISBE website today, just as many of you will be, to see who is lottery-eligible and in which #CookCountyJudicial races. (Is it OK to use a hashtag in a blog post?)

But to begin with, here are a couple of pictures, snagged from Facebook posts....

First, from Jerry Barrido... the line outside the State Board of Elections.

Everyone in line when the doors opened has a shot at the top ballot position in their race; they are lottery-eligible.

If you were listening to Newsradio 780 this morning, you wouldn't have understood that. The reporter knew that top ballot position was often determined by lottery but he thought people waited in line all night merely for "luck."

No. The long wait is the price of admission to the lottery. If candidate Smith was the only person in line looking to file for the Jones vacancy when the doors opened in Springfield at the Illinois State Board of Elections, Smith would automatically be awarded the coveted top line. Candidate White, seeking to file for the same vacancy, but who stopped for gas in Bloomington, and didn't make it until 8:15 -- long before the line outside was fully inside -- still must settle for second on the ballot.

Judges Myron "Mike" Mackoff and Travis Richardson, former law partners, are shown here posing in line with their nominating petitions. Many candidates will bring their own papers in -- as Mackoff and Richardson appear to have done here -- but others will hire persons to wait in line for them. In years past I have seen candidates swoop in, just before the doors open, relieving their surrogates -- and reaping any publicity that may be had from being photographed by the news media dispatched to see the filing parade begin. (The ones I saw, years ago, were statewide candidates. I wouldn't expect judicial candidates to have a budget item for line sitters.)

According to Facebook, Kathryn Maloney Vahey got to Springfield early and got her family out to see some of the Lincoln sites. I approve.

I never took the family with me when I went to file my papers in 1994 and 1996 -- but we did see the Lincoln sites one year as a family. We even made a side trip to Vandalia to see the really old State Capitol (oldest surviving, anyway). Lincoln sat there long enough to vote to move the capital to Springfield. In the photo, the Vahey family is outside Lincoln's home in Springfield. I never understood how the home could be air conditioned without some loss of authenticity; on the other hand, in August, in Springfield, air conditioning is a very important component of a pleasant tourist experience....

More later as the filings get sorted out at the ISBE....