Robert Delaney, the Illinois Election Official who refused to mail 1,300 Military Absentee ballots for 14 days beyond the Federal deadline has a history of disenfranchising voters. In 2009 Delaney, an active Democrat, was sued by a group of citizens in St. Clair County who claimed he used his office to disenfranchise hundreds of voters in a predominantly African-American community.
According to the complaint, hundreds of letters were mailed to residents of Alorton, IL. a community with a 97% African-American population. The letters informed the recipients that they had to attend a hearing or their voter registration would be canceled, in addition any voter who had already cast an absentee ballot would have their ballot rejected if they did not attend the hearing. The letters were mailed just two weeks before the April 9, 2009 election. One of the recipients was Kenneth Chatman, a Trustee of the City of Altoron who was up for re-election. Chatman and several other plaintiffs, including elderly and bed-ridden individuals, filed a lawsuit.
On April 3, U.S Magistrate Judge Clifford Proud issued an emergency injunction against Delaney and stopped him from suppressing minority voters.
This year, his target is the members of the military who are fighting for our country. Regarding the current inquiry by the Justice Department into Delaney’s handling of the military ballots he said:
“I really don’t care what the Department of Justice thinks.”
It remains to be seen if the Department of Justice will step in to protect the military voters in Illinois, or if they will continue to protect Democrats who suppress voters.
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