October 22, 10

NEWS / Justice Department Reaches Agreement to Protect Rights of Military and Overseas Voters in Illinois

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced that it has reached an agreement with Illinois officials to help ensure that military service members and other U.S. citizens living overseas have an opportunity to participate fully in the Nov. 2, 2010, federal general election. The agreement was necessary to ensure Illinois’s compliance with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act).

The agreement, which must be approved by the federal district court in Chicago, was filed in conjunction with a lawsuit alleging the state violated federal law when numerous election authorities in Illinois counties failed to transmit ballots by Sept. 18, 2010, to military and overseas voters who requested absentee ballots, and in some counties failed to transmit ballots electronically to voters who had made such requests.

The agreement provides additional time beyond the state’s existing Nov. 16, 2010, deadline – 14 days after election day – for receipt of ballots from military and overseas voters in six counties: Boone, Hancock, Jersey, Massac, Schuyler and St. Clair. The agreement also extends the date by which ballots from those counties must be postmarked from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2, 2010. In addition, the agreement requires that any voters who asked to receive their ballots electronically, but were sent the ballot by mail instead, will be transmitted a ballot by the requested electronic method.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) requires states to allow uniformed service voters, serving both overseas and within the United States, and their families and overseas citizens to register to vote and to vote absentee for all elections for federal office. In 2009, Congress enacted the MOVE Act, which made broad amendments to UOCAVA. Among those changes was a requirement that states transmit absentee ballots to voters covered under UOCAVA, by mail or electronically at the voter’s option, no later than 45 days before federal elections.

"The Justice Department is committed to vigorous enforcement of the MOVE Act so that members of the uniformed services, their families and other citizens living overseas are able to exercise their right to vote and know their votes will be counted," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "I am pleased that we are able to reach this agreement with Illinois officials, which will ensure that the state’s military and overseas voters can participate in the upcoming federal elections."

As part of the agreement, the state will take steps to investigate the cause of the late mailing of ballots and failure to transmit ballots electronically and to ensure compliance in future federal elections and provide a report to the Department of Justice on those efforts.

The department previously reached agreements with Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and filed lawsuits against New York, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Guam seeking relief to help ensure that military service members and other U.S. citizens living overseas have the opportunity to participate fully in the upcoming election. Consent decrees were reached with New York, New Mexico and Wisconsin, and a court-entered injunction was issued in the Guam case.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-crt-1187.html