As Hot Air reminds us, Illinois had its primary in February, which should have been plenty of time for the state to prepare absentee ballots for overseas military personnel as per the MOVE Act. To refresh your memory: the act dictates that all overseas ballots must be sent out no less than forty-five days before an election, and that states were required to make sure that this occurs.
Illinois failed to do this. The Justice Department will ‘investigate,’ of course – but don’t expect this to be resolved before the election. That military vote is unlikely to be voting Democratic in sufficient numbers to help mob banker Alexi Giannoulias (D) in his Senate race; and it certainly won’t benefit incumbent Pat Quinn (D). So there’s no valid reason for the Illinois Democrat who’s President right now to jump on military disenfranchisement; at least, no reason that Barack Obama would recognize as valid…
Moe Lane
PS: If it isn’t close, they can’t cheat. Bill Brady for Governor. Mark Kirk for Senator.
Wait– doesn’t the left endlessly complain that the military is disproportionately poor and minority? Doesn’t that mean they’re disenfranchising poor and minority voters with these stunts?
The *State* of Illinois has nothing to do with absentee ballots; state law requires local election authority (county clerk or board of election commissioners) to be responsible for absentee voting ballots. No state-level department or organization (specific example: Jesse White and the Secretary of State for Illinois) handles absentee voting.
http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/2010/10/14/for-once-the-state-isnt-the-villain-believe-it-or-not/
Brett
I’m not quite as inclined to absolve a sitting governor of his responsibility to make sure that absentee ballots are sent out as per federal law. The Capitol Fax Blog is going to have to provide some evidence that Quinn has as little control over his county clerks and election boards as, say, Governor George Bush had over stays of executions. Which I doubt will happen: the guy seems a little worked up over things. 🙂