Illinois Military Ballots

It is inexcusable for a state to fail to mail absentee ballots to our military men and women in time for them to be counted.

It is disgraceful for a state to disenfranchise men and women serving our country.

It's completely unacceptable that military ballots may not be counted in Illinois, Obama's adopted home state.

From 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 any 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.

...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.

This is a disgrace.

Does Obama want to "know whose ass to kick"?

Is the commander-in-chief outraged that members of our military would be denied their right to vote because of government screw-ups?

He must be really angry that officials in his state would be so incompetent that men and women of our military, the ones who volunteer to defend our country and put their lives on the line, might be stripped of their right to participate in this election.

You'd think Obama would put as much energy into condemning those responsible for missing the deadlines for the ballots as he's put into condemning the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently. Although he has no evidence, he's been tossing out accusations and smearing the Chamber of Commerce as corrupt, creating suspicion about it pouring foreign funds to buy political ads.

Certainly, Obama won't stand for military ballots being tossed out.

It's very difficult to believe that it's not intentional deadlines may have been missed. What are the odds that large Democrat states like Illinois and New York would both have problems when it comes to military ballots, which tend to favor Republicans?

Obama has to stand up for our troops, especially those he used to represent when he was a U.S. senator.

Will he?