Illinois Congressional Candidates Outnumber Voters

The term "special elections" has always struck us as a misnomer - after all, if they're so special, how come nobody cares about them?

As Americans, we're programmed to vote for our Senators and Congresspeople on the first Tuesday in November. (Well, about 40% of us are.) That system has worked in every election since November 6, 1792, when George Washington was elected to fill every state's Senate and Congressional seats (except South Carolina, which voted for Strom Thurmond).

So when a bunch of politicians roll up and ask us to vote on a random day - like, say, April 7 - we don't like it.

That appears to be the case in Illinois' 5th Congressional District, where a crowded field is vying to the House seat that Rahm Emmanuel vacated to become White House Chief of Staff. The election will be held April 7, a date chosen by (who else?) Rod Blagojevich.

But apparently, nobody cares. Because in some of the public forums and debates held in the district, the candidates have outnumbered the voters!

This past Sunday afternoon, 19 candidates made their pitches to an audience of 35 voters gathered in a smoky VFW hall in the snow-covered Windy City suburbs.

That candidate-to-voter ratio, however, was an improvement from the day before - when 13 of those same politicians pandered to a single voter in the audience at a forum held at a local school.

Pretty bad stuff. Turnout in next Tuesday's Democratic primary (which will likely determine the overall winner in this heavily blue district) is expected to be as little as 30,000 voters. That's right, a U.S. Representative will be chosen by about the same number of people as attendees at your average Monster Truck Rally.