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.
of course its rhetorical.
The answer, though, is obvious.. they don’t want to
Good grief. But they will make damn sure non-citizens get to vote.
Now we see the Commiecrats October surprise that will steal all the close House & Senate races!
I’m thinking a “not too nice” march on Washington just might be in order.
Republicans in IL are pretty much useless. There are plenty of lawyers, but they work for the other side.
“Imagine the media firestorm if the ballots of illegal aliens werent being counted!”
OMG! It would be one sad story after the next about how they’ve worked so hard and all they ever wanted to do was vote in America. We would never hear the end of it.
Screw you, and America, and your stupid Constitution.
It aint your America anymore.
The Marxists wouldn't dare pull this crap in South America
No one in his company, NO ONE that he knew of received a ballot!
(I was pissed, but he didn't think much of it, as he was just trying to keep alive.)
I told you people this was going to happen.
Don’t expect the Republicans in Washington to do anything other than (maybe) whine.
100 seats in the House. BS. Here’s your October Surprise.
Impeach the secretary of state immediately.
I’d like a simple 10-line federal law. If any county stamps a military absentee ballot as “not counted”...the county is assessed a $4k fee, which is paid straight to the dishonored military individual within thirty days of the stamp. This mess has been going on for years and years...and frankly, I don’t think anyone wants to truly fix it (you force everyone to have the primary by the end of June).
So let’s make it interesting for the affected guy...you get the $4k check, and we make it tax-free on top of that. We put each and every country into the position of figuring potentially 300 uncountable ballots...maybe even 3,000 uncountable ballots, and a minimum of $1.2 million that they need to find in their budget to cover every two years.
I suspect that folks in these affected counties would eventually tire of finding that extra million...and find methods on their own to fix the issue and save the county the money.
This is October...but not a surprise. Is anyone not convinced that the DIMs are the enemy of free America? Fight them! Keep fighting! Vote! Drive stakes through their anti-American hearts!
Sounds good to me. I bet a leftist judge would throw it out or mess it up somehow
When a state disenfranchises members of the Armed Forces, who are overwhelmingly Republican, it's a mere infraction. But when liberals are too stupid to cast a ballot correctly, the Republicans go down in history for "stealing the election."
Everyone here is completely overreacting.
The Illinois primary was just held quite recently, on February 2nd to be exact.
There is just no way they could possibly have printed the ballots yet. Cut ‘em a break.
Blue states not sending ballots to the military? How convenient.
How about calling, in addition, the RNC and the Republican Campaign Committees for the Senate and House and tell them to raise Holy Hell until each and every member of the Military secures his/her right to vote including filing suit under the Voting Rights Act.
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