Despite all the hype, all the angst, all the hoopla, many of our neighbors aren't voting. Why?

Now that early voting is upon us, there will be some new visitors coming to this page, namely, voters looking for information about judicial races. I'll have a "welcome" post or two up soon.

This post, however, is addressed to those of you who come here regularly, all year long. You, Dear Regular Reader, are also a voter.

In fact, chances are pretty good that you haven't missed an election of any kind---primary, regular, special, municipal, whatever---since you turned 18. If you live in the suburbs you dutifully vote for library boards, school boards, and township officials. You vote on all bond issues. You're not just voters, you're VOTERS. Do you know what else you are?

You're a bunch of danged unicorns, that's what.

I'd like to believe otherwise. I'd like to think that every citizen of our fair Republic would take the minimal time required to vote in every election. We were all taught in school that this was our duty as citizens. It is, quite literally, the least we can do. But the evidence is overwhelming that folks who vote in every election are exceedingly rare. In other words, unicorns. (I could say as rare as hen's teeth, but, given the choice, I assume most of you would prefer being a unicorn to a hen's tooth.)

Slightly more than half of all Americans of voting age bothered to cast ballots in 2016 (55.7%, according to this report from Pew Research). That linked report also suggests that only about 64% of the voting age population in America was even registered to vote.

And you already know that turnout for a primary is lower than turnout in a general. And turnout in an Illinois gubernatorial primary is usually lower than turnout in a presidential primary. And you further know that turnout drops off even more as voters move down the ballot. But you don't drop off -- you trudge through the primary ballot down to the subscircuit races. You'll vote on each and every retention judge on the November ballot. And a lot of you are already thinking about 2022.

Before you abandon yourself entirely to thoughts of 2022, maybe you could take a moment now to wonder: Who are these people who don't vote? Who don't even register to vote? Why aren't they participating? Across the nation, reformers are trying to restore felons to the voting lists; we will have a polling place in the Cook County Jail. Facebook is haranguing me whenever I sign on -- Jack, are you registered to vote in Illinois? My wife has gotten 10 or more solicitations to register for a mail-in ballot. I've gotten one... I feel a little slighted. Secretary of State Jesse White recently wrote to us both, in separate letters, and in a half dozen different languages, reminding us that we could ask for a mail-in ballot. It is already impossible to watch a news broadcast or sporting event without multiple political commercials; soon it will be impossible to watch any program on TV without encountering someone's political message.

A person has to exert some serious effort to avoid the forthcoming election.

And, yet, my Dear Unicorns, somewhere between a third and one-half of your neighbors will not vote or aren't even registered.

Many of you are actively involved in current campaigns. Your immediate thoughts are about getting as many of 'your' voters out as possible. So you're not thinking about those who won't vote---they're neither a help nor a threat to you and your chosen candidate. But I wonder if it might not be a worthwhile exercise to at least wonder why so many of our neighbors will not vote.

I suppose that some of the many non-voters are simply satisfied with everything. Since everything is wonderful, why bother to vote?

But I can't imagine that satisfaction with the status quo is the only reason, or even a reason that applies to many non-voters.

Are many non-voters so turned off, so disgusted, by our political antics that they have given up on the system? Why?

I don't know the answers. I don't pretend to know. But I am pretty sure that it would be a huge mistake to assume that those non-voters, if they could be dragged out to the polls, would agree with 'your' side, whatever side you're on.

Right now, everyone is shouting at the non-voters, telling them that they must vote, and must vote as we say. Maybe, in the long run, the country would be better off if we could hear, and really listen to, an explanation from the non-voters as to why they're not going to participate.