Rich has the overblown story on military ballots not going out in time in Illinois.
It appears that some local offices did not send out military ballots on time with a 45 day deadline for them before the day of the election.
Rich takes issue with the way the story is explained by WLS, specifically this bit:
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.
Rich rightly points out that the County election authorities (County Clerks) are responsible for sending the ballots out so the State Board of Elections (and yes, they have the worst web site in the world) is not at fault and pointedly critiques both Kirk and Brady overreacting and blaming the state for screwing up.
Most of that I agree with, but part of the issue is how the Justice Department addresses the issue which is a fairly fine, but important legal point. When the federal government is concerned about a federal right and has to address whether a state or locality is at fault, the state and local governments are unitary in nature and in terms of Constitutional Law, the state is responsible for political subdivisions established under it. So in federal lawsuits over voting rights, it may be the state delegates the responsibility to the local government, but the state is still the responsible party.
That may seem a bit pedantic, but it explains the language from the Justice Department. That does not give WLS a pass though because they should have added the local context and how the State of Illinois is addressing the problem and how limited it is to local County Clerks.
All that said, Bob Delaney is a moron.
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.”
It’s especially problematic because there Scott in St. Clair. There’s no excuse given he’s not dealing with a small issue or something surprising, he should have been prepared for this for months. It’s inexcusable. If the Constitution Party had won, then the Courts would have had to establish the correct remedies, but that doesn’t mean Delaney can simply ignore federal law. He’s up for election in 2 years, but if he doesn’t get an attitude change and quick, he may not want to stick around given what the Department of Justice is likely to do to him.