Carded

There is an old saying in Lake County politics:

You Can't Play If You Don't Have A Card

... the card in question being your voter registration card.

Perhaps the single most important piece of identification in your wallet, the Lake County voter registration card is everything from your picture-ID for cheap beer at the VFW to your stay-out-of-jail-free bond card for that long drive home up Route 12.

So naturally your LakeCountyEye takes notice when Operatives report that the County Clerk has been mailing out new voter registration cards. One News-Sun correspondent (who registered to vote in Lake County more than 20 years ago) was surprised to find a new voter registration card in his mailbox. He assumes the card was sent ...

for one or more of three reasons: Because my old card, issued in May 2004, was turning yellow; because information like my Congressional district and/or state legislative districts had changed since 2004; or because the statement about my card being "issued by Willard R. Helander, Lake County Clerk" was out-of-date, even though the name had been written in boldface type, seemingly intended to last until the end of time.
New voter registration cards, same old process

Now, there are more than 410,000 registered voters in Lake County, an historic high. And there is another old saying in Lake County politics:

Voters Are All Like Cattle

... and when the herd grows to a certain size, your LakeCountyEye suspects there may be another reason, hidden behind the cards, and overlooked by the News-Sun:

Reason #4 ...

1. Mail Out New Registration Cards
2. Post Office Returns a Bunch of Cards Marked Addressee Unknown
3. Thin the Herd

Note to Ops: you may already be disenfranchised.