Posted on 10/14/2010 9:41:21 AM PDT by tricky_k_1972
SPRINGFIELD — State election regulators are trying to determine how many Illinois counties complied with federal voting laws regarding overseas military voting.
At the request of the U.S. Justice Department, the Illinois State Board of Elections is asking counties to report back on whether they sent out military ballots for the Nov. 2 election by Sept. 18.
At least one county, with a large portion of military ballots, acknowledges missing the deadline.
St. Clair County Clerk Bob Delaney said 1,297 overseas military ballots — many of them connected with Scott Air Force Base — didn’t get sent out until Oct. 4, primarily because he was waiting for a decision on whether the Constitution Party would be allowed on the ballot.
Under the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) act, ballots are supposed to be sent 45 days before the election in order to give troops time to fill them out and return them for counting.
Delaney said it wouldn’t have made financial sense to send out two versions of the ballot if the Constitution Party had won its case.
“This is not just like sending out your grocery list,” Delaney said. “I really don’t care what the Department of Justice thinks.”
The inquiry comes as the Justice Department has cracked down on late ballots in other states, including New York and Colorado.
Rupert Borgsmiller, deputy director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, said it isn’t the first time the federal government has sought to determine Illinois’ compliance with the act.
“It is something that they have definitely been staying on top of,” Borgsmiller said.
The MOVE act was instituted after reports found that as many as a quarter of overseas troops’ ballots weren’t either collected or counted because they were returned late.
Those ballots could make a difference in an extremely close election, such as the U.S. Senate race between Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias.
In Illinois’ case, election officials generally don’t make vote counts official until eight to 10 days after the election.
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If they mailed the ballots late,,the ballots should be accepted late by an equal number of days. No election should be validated without counting the military ballots. There were lots of elections decided by a number of votes far less than the missing military vote.
Such as Minnesota, in which military ballots were expunged, while 490 (+/-) ballots from convicted felons were accepted.
“In Illinois’ case, election officials generally don’t make vote counts official until eight to 10 days after the election.”
That’s so they know how many dead votes they need.
The whole idea is to invalidate the military’s vote, which they will. And the DOJ will do nothing, just like the Black Panther incident in Philadelphia.
Even the dumbest emperors don’t cross the Praetorian. A fool is his own worst enemy.
NY state didn't send out military ballots either. I think the liberal states do it on purpose. That's thousands of right wing votes that don't get counted in every election - year after year.
Your common sense remedy only makes since if the people responsible for making sure our soldiers are availed of their Constitutional right to vote are pure in heart—regardles of their political affiliation. Sadly, it appears too many of the politicl class are devoid of ethic, morality and conscience.
Mr. Issa,
Let the investigations commence. And may they end with criminal referrals.
Respectfully,
Which describes our Commander in Chief to a ‘t’. The rumblings within the ranks (some say) are reminiscent of one Cassius Charea.
Sad but true.
Typical RAT conduct. Not the any will end up being Cuffed and Stuffed for a free ride to L-O-N-G L-O-N-G L-O-N-G stay in a federal prison but the shoud be.
How convenient. I'm sure the law allowed for this. If this reason was primary, what were the secondary reasons beyond mailing cost?
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