A reporter friend of mine always joked that the biggest thing you had to do as a reporter was listen as someone got themselves in trouble. Bob Delaney has lots of people listening. Rich has been all over this story. From a link Rich provides
St. Clair County Clerk Bob Delaney acknowledged Thursday that 1,297 military ballots were mailed out two weeks after a deadline set by federal law, including 223 absentee ballots sent out to troops overseas.
Delaney blamed the missed deadline on his decision to wait on an appellate court ruling on whether Constitution Party candidates may remain on the Nov. 2 ballot.
Delaney, a Democrat, said if he had mailed out the ballots before the court ruling had come down, putting the Constitution Party back on the ballot, “I would have had to redo the whole thing again” — at a cost of $2 per ballot, Delaney said.
“I thought it was the safe way to wait,” he said. “I was trying to be prudent. I was trying to be wise.”
You may have thought that, but that would make you an idiot. A really big one. As I pointed out yesterday, unless a court enjoined you from mailing the ballots, you didn’t have a choice. Complying with federal law on voting is not an optional activity. It’s never prudent to violate voting rights laws. It may cost you extra money if the Illinois Court had ruled in favor of the Constitution Party, but that’s the cost of being in the voting business.
Rich points the ISBE might not have entirely clean hands, but Delaney is the person primarily responsible and this would seem to me to be an offense that could easily get you removed from office.
Are there no laws to throw this clown in jail? He knew the law. He violated it. He needs a few years to contemplate his naval in a penitentiary.
I was raised in an area of flagrant violation of the voting laws. You definitely don’t get better results when the votes aren’t counted.
Hey, guys, chill. To me this sounds like honest confusion. Anyway, he’s a Democrat, so it’s not like this is some sort of nefarious TeaTard plot.
Well, it’s civil law, not criminal law so jail isn’t the point here.
As to confusion–stupidity maybe, but not confusion. The law is very clear on this and I’ve actually worked with the Saint Louis City Board of Elections when they brought in new equipment to see how it worked. A federal mandate isn’t a point for confusion. Now, the ISBE seems to be slightly confused so it’s possible they contributed to the problem, but all election authorities are well aware of federal law in relation to balloting. It’s inexcusable.