With this election season winding down and all of the allegations of voter fraud we have seen, I felt there was one more thing that needed to be revisited. Last month, I wrote a couple of articles, detailing how New York State had violated the MOVE Act. You can read here and here, how they failed to send out absentee ballots to our military personnel who are overseas. As it turns out, they are not the only state who has failed in their obligation to make sure the members of the military are able to cast their votes in time to be counted. As the House of Representatives opens for business this first day of November, 2010, the House Administration committee will be receiving a letter from Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady. This letter will ask for an investigation into allegations that some election districts in Illinois have failed to meet the requirements of the MOVE Act. From FOX News:
“I respectfully write with an urgent request for the House Administration Committee to investigate serious deficiencies in the nationwide implementation and enforcement of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009,” writes Brady.The MOVE act is an amendment to the 1986 Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (“UOCAVA”). The key element of that act is the requirement that ballots be sent 45 days ahead of the election, creating ample time for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to receive their ballots and mail them back in time to be counted. That means ballots needed to be mailed by September 18th.
In 35 out of 110 Illinois voting districts, they were not. At least one district was 20 days late.
Brady’s letter claims efforts by the Department of Justice and the Illinois State Board of Elections to ensure compliance with the law were “lackadaisical at best.” The letter claims the DOJ sent a status inquiry to the Illinois SBE four days before the legal deadline and the response was a two sentence e-mail assuring the DOJ that Illinois Electoral Districts were on track to meet the deadline. There was no county by country request for information and no mention that counties in Illinois were refusing to print, until a court challenge to include a 3rd party on the ballot was resolved.
Representatives of the SBE, the DOJ and the Illinois Attorney General, met and produced a consent decree that adds one day for soldiers and other Illinois absentee voters to get postmarks on their returning ballots. It provides more time for the ballots to be counted, but the point of contention for Illinois Republicans is that the period of time for some soldiers and other absentee voters to receive and return their ballots is unfairly shortened. So, Illinois Republicans are requesting an investigation on behalf of American service members, “that their votes are not disenfranchised by the accidental or willful acts of local election authorities, and that the Department of Justice vigorously ensure that the provisions of the MOVE Act are enforced.”
As I mentioned in the first sentence, there has already been multiple allegations of voter fraud in this election. Conservative Hideout has been covering these allegations extensively and I have came to believe there will be no small effort to thwart the major victories the Republicans are expecting to see in tomorrow’s election results. Taken in full context, this is bad enough, but when you narrow it down to the possibility that some of the men and women who are putting their lives on the line for our country may possibly be unable to cast their votes in time, it is even worse. Every effort needs to be made to make sure that does not happen and to watch this development closely. Those votes could be the deciding factor in close races and it will be the ultimate insult to the members of our military if their votes are not counted. The Department of Justice needs to take positive action to make sure that does not happen.
