The Horseshoe Roundup

On Tuesday, April 2^nd, 12% of Peoria (a whopping 18.65% of registered voters) decided the five available At-Large seats for Peoria City Council. The winners: Dr. Rita Ali (24.88%), John “Growth™” Kelly (12.06%), Zach Oyler (11.85%), Beth Jensen (11.43%), and Sid Ruckriegel (11.26%). Just at the outset, millennial Andre W. Allen¹ (10.63%) lost by a mere 408 votes, proving himself as a natural political contender in future local races. My own personal favorite, Peter Kobak, came in 7^th with 7.74% of the vote– nearly 3,000 votes behind taking 5^th from Ruckriegal.

Dr. Ali had this election in the bag before even the primary. Her tactic of bringing a posse to each candidate forum (15-20 of her supporters clearly wearing Vote Ali attire) should be copied by candidates in future elections. She carried nearly a quarter of all votes in the general and ran on the slogan “Put 5 on it”, encouraging her supporters, and specifically her supporters in the black community, to give her all 5 votes. This, of course, is because of Peoria’s peculiar way of voting for At-Large council members: cumulative voting. If five seats are available, then voters are allowed to vote for five candidates… or, give one candidate 5 votes.²

At one point, several commentators (myself included) suggested Dr. Ali supporters maybe only put two and a half on it, after she conquered the primaries. Had this occurred, Dr. Ali likely would have remained in the number one spot with 12.44%. If the other half of these votes were split equally between Allen and Kobak, they would be on City Council with 16.85% and 13.96% respectively. But, one can hardly blame Dr. Ali for getting on City Council with such a perspicacious presence. If anything, Dr. Ali schooled the other candidates on how to come correct when one is required to run using cumulative voting.

1. Full disclosure: I have known Andre Allen since we were young lads. We both attended Woodrow Wilson Primary (now Dr. Maude Sanders Primary) and Sterling Middle School together in the same grade.
2. The exact formula is vote for 1 candidate = that candidate receives 5 votes; 2=2.5 votes; 3=1.66 votes; 4=1.25 votes; 5=1