Suit Filed in Federal Court for Illinois Absentee Ballot

[liveoaktx]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-12-2005/0003387139&EDATE=

Record numbers of voters cast votes in last November's election.
However, absentee voters whose ballots were rejected were not notified until months later, and thus had no way to defend their ballots and their vote. Bruce Zessar voted absentee, or thought he had, so it came as a shock to him when two months later he received a card advising him that his vote had been rejected because his signature differed from that on his registration.
A class action lawsuit, filed by Clint Krislov in federal court in Chicago, challenges a little known procedure for handling absentee ballots which, Krislov asserts, deprives absentee voters their civil rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, specifically the denial of procedural due process in the disqualification of absentee ballots.
Krislov was quoted: "Absentee voters already provide a telephone number and an email address with their ballot. The least officials could do is call them and give them 24 hours to come down to defend their ballot!" Although the Illinois Election Code requires notice given to those whose ballots are rejected, there is no time requirement, nor any procedure to defend a challenged ballot. As a result, rejected voters receive notice of their rejected ballot months after the election, with no way to have their ballot counted.
As noted in the case, ten ballots were rejected in just one Highland Park precinct last November. Thus the numbers could easily be enough to make a difference in the election result. For example, in last Tuesday's elections, a number of elections were determined by less than a dozen votes.
The case is titled Bruce Zessar v. Willard Helander, et al., United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, No. 05-cv-1917, and is assigned to United States District Judge David H. Coar.
Clinton A. Krislov was quoted: "What's important here is that people have a reasonable opportunity to defend their ballot, and that everyone's vote actually counts!"

[Wilms]

1. Swiped it! n/t

[imenja]

2. I wish there would be lawsuits about provisional ballots in Florida

The SOE office refused to give provisional ballots, even though both state and Florida law required it. The Kerry lawyers collected information on the problem on election day, but then the campaign told them such matters were not to be pursued. The votes weren't enough to put Kerry over the top. I guess what we are missing here is an individual voter outraged enough to file a suit even when the Democratic party has lost interest.