Friday, October 15, 2010
 
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Many counties miss military ballot deadline

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[October 15, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- Nearly 1 in 5 Illinois counties failed to meet last month's deadline to send military and overseas ballots

InsuranceIllinois Statehouse News contacted each of the 110 local election offices in the state and found many that sent out ballots after the Sept. 18 deadline for soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who are serving overseas. Twenty-one counties missed the deadline, while 87 mailed out ballots on time. Two counties, Marion and Will, did not return the calls.

The majority of counties that did not get overseas ballots into the mail on time are smaller, rural counties. Kane and St. Clair counties are two of the larger counties that did not meet the deadline.

But local election officials insist that no one is being disenfranchised. Carla Hoelsch, chief deputy clerk for Clinton County, said the 30 or so ballots she sent out just after the September deadline will be counted.

"I am a big supporter of the military -- my son-in-law is deployed for the second time in Afghanistan. I would lean toward busting my behind to do anything we can for the military. But ... it's been done and we got them out within four days of the deadline."

Over in Edgar County, County Clerk Becky Kraemer said she had three military ballots on her desk before Sept. 18 but waited until Sept. 21 to send them to voters because of a pending ballot challenge from the Constitution Party.

"I am extremely sorry that I did not hit that deadline," she said. "We would have mailed (the ballots) out on the 17th had this court case not been looming and (we were) uncertain about everything."

Kraemer adds that she, and a lot of other election officials, feared a court ruling that would require more ballots or more last-minute changes.

Massac County received two military absentee ballot requests and two overseas citizen ballot requests before Sept. 18.

But Massac County Clerk John "Bubba" Taylor said the county did not fulfill those requests until Oct. 8.

"We're a very poor county. It's 30 cents a ballot. It doesn't sound like much, but when you're printing 11,000 ballots, it really adds up," he said.

Taylor said he understood there were concerns about counties missing the federal deadline for fulfilling ballot requests.

"But until you have ballots and have them proofed, you can't send them to people," he said.

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That lack of guidance from the court is a common complaint from counties. Kraemer, from Edgar County, said she had to choose between the federal deadline and the state court.

"The courts don't always look at deadlines for election authorities. We're at their mercy to expeditiously take care of election questions."

Kraemer said she knew that even if she missed the September deadline, those voters would still have their ballots counted.

In fact nearly every election office in the state has sent military and overseas ballots since the deadline. Ballots will continue to be sent to military members until Oct. 22 and to overseas civilians until Oct. 28.

Bureau County Clerk Kami Hieronymus adds that she will wait until Nov. 16 to count all the ballots.

"It's the same process as it would be for any registered voter. As long as they get their ballot in the mail and postmarked the day before the election, then we wait for that mail to come in. We have 14 days after the election to count all of the absentee and military ballots that are returned to us."

[Illinois Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]

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