To be a swing state once again

Thus far, ACORN hasn't been accused of wrong doing in Cook County, notorious for voter fraud. Today in the Southtown Star, we speculate on why that is; and determine it's because the Democrats have no real challenge in Cook County, where 42 percent of the state's votes were cast in this year's primary. Voter fraud's an issue only in competitive swing states.

That "swing state" moniker may be exactly the reason why Illinois isn't high on the voter fraud suspect list this time around. In the February primary, there were only 179,464 Republican ballots pulled in Cook County, compared to 1.2 million Democratic ballots. That's nine Democratic voters to every one Republican.

Clearly, the county is overwhelmingly Democratic. Stunningly Democratic. Repulsively Democratic. Unjustly Democratic.

But there's hope -- and it will take hard work.  Lots of it.

With some hard work, message revamping and messenger reviving, which can lift hopes and put ideals back in place, Illinois can become a two-state party again. But Republican party leaders need to decide if they will fight to restore a healthy, robust two-party system or if they will allow the state to continue to be run by a privileged few.

Oh, to once again be a swing state concerned about voter fraud.