Judge: Illinois ballot language 'misleading'

[October 02, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- A judge has ruled that Illinois must stop mailing election ballots to members of the military and hold off on sending absentee ballots to everyone else because they contain "misleading and "inaccurate" language.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Nathaniel R. Howse Jr. on Wednesday also ordered the State Board of Elections to draft a notice to voters explaining how information included on the current ballot is false.

The judge ordered lawyers to return to court Friday to discuss how the notices would be distributed and whether there should be specific ballot changes.

As they are now, ballots that ask whether to call the Seventh Illinois Constitutional Convention state inaccurately that not voting on the referendum amounts to a "no" vote. They also recount that the last constitutional convention referendum, in 1988, failed. Howse found the inclusion of that information inappropriate.

The Chicago Bar Association and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn filed the lawsuit against Secretary of State Jesse White and the Illinois State Board of Elections. They said the referendum on the state constitutional convention was biased.

Lawyers for Cook County Clerk David Orr, White and the elections board argued that interfering with preparations for the election would put the entire process at risk.

"The legal issues cannot be separated from the fact that we have a presidential election 34 days away," said Thomas A. Ioppolo, an assistant attorney general for the state. "We cannot blow up the whole election over this."

Officials did not immediately know how many ballots would have to be changed, but nearly 3 million people voted in Illinois in the 2008 primary election, and with native son Barack Obama running for president, participation this time was expected to be high.

If the notices were mailed to an estimated 1.6 million Chicagoans registered to vote in the upcoming election, the cost of postage would be at least $2 million, said Jim Allen, spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections.

The state constitution requires voters to consider the convention question every 20 years. That deadline comes up again Nov. 4.

[Associated Press; By RUPA SHENOY]

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