On an Election Day where turnout was expected to be low to begin with, a rain/hail/lightning storm which hit Evanston in the early afternoon was not exactly conducive towards going out to vote.
Before the downpour began, Jackson Paller was passing out campaign flyers in front of the Robert Crown Center, where both the 2nd and 9th Wards have voting precincts
Paller, said there had been just a “trickle” (no rain pun intended) of voters in the 90 minutes he’d been there, understandable, he said “with the kind of day it is and with early voting.”
Paller was leafletting for 2nd Ward challenger Darlene Cannon.
Also at the Crown parking lot, Bernard Harris was doing the same thing for his daughter, incument 2nd Ward alder Krissie Harris.
There is also a third candidate in the 2nd Ward, Pat Gregory.
The 2nd and the 9th Wards are the only ones with aldermanic elections this year.
In the 9th Ward, incumbent Juan Geracaris is being challenged by Kathy Hayes.
Both the 2nd and 9th Ward races are for two-year terms, as Harris and Geracaris were appointed to vacancies, so this election is basically for the second half of a four-year slot.
There are also contested races for school board in District 65 and District 202.
Two years ago, in the last municipal/school board election, turnout was only 23 percent.
By 3 p.m. today, the downpour had stopped.
The question then became would voter turnout still be a “trickle,” or would there at least be a “stream” casting ballots as they came home from work in the late afternoon.
The polls close at 7 p.m. Evanston Now will have election results through the evening.