Daily Herald - November 10, 2009

If conventional wisdom holds true, state Sen. Dan Cronin picked up an extra 5 percent of the Republican votes Tuesday in his bid for the DuPage County Board Chairman's seat.

Cronin won a special lottery conducted by the DuPage Election Commission to determine which of the three GOP chairman candidates who were in line at 8 a.m. on the first day of filing for the Feb. 2, 2010 primary would be first on the ballot. Current District 4 county board member Debra Olson will be the second candidate on the ballot, and Burr Ridge Mayor Gary Grasso will be third. State Sen. Carole Pankau will be listed last because she filed on the final day allowed.

Studies have backed up what political pundits have long believed: The top ballot spot in a multicandidate race can add as much as 5 percent to a candidate's vote total. The bottom spot has been shown to have an additional advantage as well. Research on the topic in a 2004 edition of "The Journal of Politics" concluded that ballot position "can determine election outcomes."

The lottery was held by drawing lettered ping-pong balls out of a box. Each candidates was randomly assigned a letter, election officials said.

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