Posted on 10/13/2010 4:37:02 PM PDT by MaestroLC
CHICAGO (WLS) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the state of Illinois missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters as part of a new federal overseas voting law.
Cris Cray, Director of Legislation at the Illinois State Board of Elections, says not all of Illinois' 110 jurisdictions were compliant with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE).
The law requires every state to mail their absentee ballots 45 days prior to Election Day to overseas troops, government employees and other Americans who want to vote from abroad.
Cray says she is currently compiling data from each of Illinois' jurisdictions to determine which were compliant and which were delinquent. Cray said it's possible the ballots may not be counted because the state was tardy in sending them out.
Illinois was required to have all of its absentee ballots mailed by Sept. 18, the national deadline. Election officials have until Nov. 15 to count the absentee ballots, which must be postmarked by midnight Nov. 1 to be eligible.
In an e-mail response, Justice Department spokeswoman Xochil Hinojosa confirmed that Illinois is being investigated for the absentee ballot infraction.
"The Department is working with all states, including Illinois, to investigate and remedy and problems that will prevent our men and women serving overseas from having the opportunity to vote and have their votes counted," Hinojosa said
The Justice Department has brought a lawsuit against the state of New York after settling with New Mexico over a similar case of delinquent absentee ballots for overseas Americans.
Several New York counties including the five boroughs of New York City were found to be in violation of the deadline after the state was permitted by the Defense Department to move its deadline to Oct. 1 because the state's primary day was four days before the deadline.
The Justice Department settled a case with New Mexico Tuesday where six counties failed to mail ballots by the deadline.
Overseas ballots could be a deciding factor in Illinois' mid-term elections where recent polls show a tight U.S. Senate race between Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias. Republican Bill Brady has an edge over Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn for governor.
We need to bring the boys home. They may be needed here.
I was just thinking that maybe, depending on how this plays out in the next week, we should start a campaign to send the ballots to the military by FedEx, paid for by individual citizen donations. I’m sure such a campaign could easily raise enough money to pay for shipping to, and return from all those who didn’t receive their ballots. It would have to be done in such a way that no one could question if the ballots were tampered with, which I’m sure is doable. This would make sure the military votes are counted, and embarrass the government that couldn’t, or wouldn’t do its job.
“The people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do.” — Joseph Stalin
Remember, it doesn't matter what the law says, laws don't apply to Demoncrats.
OMG....it’s not like, ya know, like, their, like even here!!! They are, like fighting an illegal, like war that like Bush started over oil. They, like, already get, like free healthcare....OMG....the illegals, like, are actually like, here, trying to like, make a better life, for themselves, so it’s like, more important for them to vote....why is everyone, like soooo ignorant?
OCTOBER SURPRISE!!!!!!!
“The largest voter fraud conspiracy in U.S. history is taking shape.”
Boy, isn’t that the truth.
To all those talk radio folks and those on the ‘fair and balanced’ channel who’ve been telling us for 18 months to chill out obout O’bama’s birth certificate and America going down the tubes because we have the ballot box in Nov. - if it turns out the dems win big (obvious fraud), then what?
Of course!.....Illinois, the cesspool that is corrupt whack left politics!
This is news? Of course those Chicago thugs weren’t going to allow the military to vote. After all, they always vote “the wrong way”.
(And with all of those dead voters to count, who has time to count votes from live soldiers anyway!?!)
This is such an easy fix. Put each election official in jail for one day for each military member that didn’t get a ballot in time to have their vote count.
Early voting also has consequences. Some who voted early for zero regretted it shortly before election day. Then there's the NY scuzzyfava. She dropped out a few days before the election. She got the early votes.
The state workers were probably just following orders, the people giving the orders or more likely throwing roadblocks in the way of compliance, are the ones who need jail time.
As a side note, I was reading Common Sense by Thomas Paine last night. In this day and age he would be labled a right wing religious fanatic. In his chapter regarding the origins of monarchies he dared to source the Bible as if it were a historical document.
WI as well
It shouldn’t matter if the state missed the deadline.
That’s no excuse to penalize and (dare I say) disenfranchise a whole segment of our population which has NO control of where they are on election day?
Those service members deserve the privilege of having their votes count. This is simply inexcusable and a totally blatant attempt at election fixing.
If this were a group of minorities, we’d see the SHTF so fast that your head would spin. Someone would be facing a long jail term for that.
The double standard is appalling. FR posting guidelines prohibit me from fully expressing my feeling about what how those culpable should be treated.
Yes, but if the state workers faced losing their pension benefits, they would be less inclined to ‘follow orders’.
this was a staged event
Yep. Getting those monks to illuminate the manuscript ballots within fewer than 7 months is asking for a miracle, inn’it.
BTTT
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.