Yes, dead people do vote in Chicago.
Or at least that's been the running joke at the expense of the Chicago political machine. But in the campaign currently underway between State Representative Deb Mell (D-40) and her opponent Joe Laiacona (more well known to us by his pen name, Jack Rinella), it appears that living politicians in fact cannot vote. At least not if they aren't registered to vote in the precinct in which they are running.
Turns out that Mell moved to a new location in her district in 2009 but failed to re-register, making her, at least in theory (well, and that pesky campaign law) ineligible to be on the ballot.
There's been a quiet but ugly smear effort going on in the campaign to represent the 40th with opponents making much ado about Joe's other life as a "leather columnist". I'm going to guess that "leather" has matching facial expressions to "felon" or "pedophile". Mr Laiacona has been open about his sexuality and about writing the column and if elected will be first openly kinky elected state representative.
If the law prevails and Mell is barred from the ballot we can expect the efforts against Laiacona to intensify and get increasingly nasty. Ah politics...
Check here for a more in-depth analysis of the political maneuverings.
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