Stuffing ballot boxes to win a judgeship in Chicago is a rookie move. Everyone knows that the legal way to get more votes is to change your name so it sounds l

Stuffing ballot boxes to win a judgeship in Chicago is a rookie move. Everyone knows that the legal way to get more votes is to change your name so it sounds like an Irish woman. > three ballot cues have attained legendary status in Cook County: gender, Irish ethnicity, and first ballot position. Female candidates are believed to hold a significant advantage over male candidates, a belief borne out by election results over much of the past twenty years. The advantage of an Irish-sounding name in Cook County has long been accepted as gospel truth, so much so that several past judicial candidates with non-Irish names have legally changed their names to suggest Irish ancestry. [1] It's so common that they passed a law to make it so that you really have to plan ahead: > if a candidate has changed his or her name during the 3 years before the deadline for filing nominating petitions ... the ballot must include a reference to his or her former name or names and the date or dates of the name changes [2] Not a joke: > There are only two kinds of people, the saying goes, the Irish and those who wish they were. Shannon P. O’Malley, who is running to be a judge in suburban Chicago, seems to fit into the second category. For, despite the name, O’Malley doesn't appear to be all that Irish. O’Malley is a 55-year-old Chicago guy formerly named Phillip Spiwak who insists he is not trying to pull the wool over voters’ eyes. [3] [1] https://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1149&context=law-review https://via.library.depaul.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&... [2] https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=4173&GAID=8&GA=94&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=22164&SessionID=50&SpecSess https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=4173&... [3] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/illinois-judge-candidate-insists-he-s-o-malley-critics-call-n845651 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/illinois-judge-candidat...