« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

MEMBER DIARY

Why is Illinois Holding up Mark Kirk’s Trip to the Senate?

By: GregInFla (Diary)  |  November 16th, 2010 at 12:10 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Well, the two new Democratic Senators are seated. Mark Kirk won both the election for the full term starting in 2011, and the remaining amount of Obama’s seat (which Burris had held), in what were actually two separate elections in Illinois on Nov. 2. Where is the Republican from Illinois? Not in DC yet.  I see this from Fox News:

The other special election winner, Senator-elect Mark Kirk, R-Ill., must wait a bit longer to join his colleagues. Election officials in his home state need more time to certify the vote there.
Say what?  Does anyone out there with connections know what is going on back in my birth state? Is this Chicago politics as usual?
Another newcomer, Mark Kirk, of Illinois, is scheduled to be sworn in Nov. 29 after that state’s election officials certify the results in the special election for the seat once held by President Obama.
Now, if you KNOW that you will be swearing him in on Nov. 29th, why not now? Are they using the Palm Beach ballots up there in Chicago? Someone should be screaming about this. But everyone is silent. I guess they can count faster and better in West Virginia than Illinois. I say there should be no votes in the Senate until Kirk is sworn in.
Tags: ,
Get Alerts

COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • eburke
    • acat

      and both candidates signed off on it.

      I don’t doubt that, had Alexi* won, the paperwork would have been “completed earlier than expected”, but .. that’s the claim.

      Mew

      * having worked with the mob before, Alexi knows about doing what he’s told.

  • froster

    The votes are not certified in Illinois until November 23, which is NOT later than usual or anything like that.

    November 19 – Deadline for counting the votes. (Illinois is so big…)
    November 23 – Board certifies election results
    November 29 – Next practical day he can be sworn in

    It’s all a technicality sure, but every Senator has to have their results certified. I believe it’s part of the Senate rules.

  • GregInFla

    but even so, with today’s technology, that still seems to be a long time to decide who won when no recount is required. It’s just more time to massage the vote counts. There had been talk that Illinois was going to defy the Fed Court that required the election in the first place, and send Burris. I just don’t trust them.

  • Finrod

    They certify Democrats immediately, and take as long as they possibly can to certify Republicans. Same thing happened to Scott Brown.

  • IJB

    This special election in IL is the *result of a COURT ORDER*. It is clear the court intended that Kirk be seated immediately after the election to fill out the remainder of Obama’s term.

    The fact that Kirk has not been seated yet is clearly in contrivance of a court order – what IL officials is doing here is, in fact, *illegal* (it’s unfortunate that no one will challenge them on it).

    The normal certification process should be for the *full-term* part of Kirk’s win.

    But he should be seated *now* for the special election part – that is *clearly* what the court intended with its ruling. (Does anyone really doubt that if Alexi G. had won, he would already have been sworn in by now?!)

    But I guess none of this bothers you, huh?…

  • acat

    to ask the court who ordered the special election to review their decision and this foot-dragging.

    And Kirk doesn’t seem to be interested in fighting this….

    Mew

  • froster

    Get me the court case, do something. I found out from Lynn Sweet of the Chicago paper, the Washington Post, and other papers why Kirk’s swearing in is being held up.

  • froster

    The first link says:

    “Pending the November election, U.S. Senator Roland Burris will continue to serve as the appointed Senator filling the vacancy created by Obama?s election as President. The special election results will be final once the Illinois State Board of Elections certifies the election results. The State Board of Elections expects to canvass the special election sometime in late November. The candidate who wins the race for the unexpired term will serve from late November through January 2, 2011.”

    http://triblocal.com/grayslake/2010/08/11/illinois-special-election-for-u-s-senate-seat/

    Why not do the research?

  • IJB
  • froster

    You didn’t click on the link I GAVE you, did you?

  • IJB

    All it is is making excuses for what IL officials are doing to drag their feet and circumvent a court ruling.

    Let me ask you something – do you really believe that the Federal Court that ordered this Special Election did that expecting that the winner wouldn’t be seated until *DECEMBER* missing virtually *all* of the Special Election, and serving for a grand total of *ONE MONTH*?! (There would have been no point in ordering the Special Election in the first place if that were the case.)

    And do you honestly think that if Alexi G. had won that he wouldn’t have been seated by now?

    If you answer “Yes” to either of these questions, I literally cannot help you on this one…

  • froster

    But it was printed in July. Here is the press release announcing it: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs075/1102393881376/archive/1103608511267.html

    But back IN July, before a winner was known, the SoS office was expecting that the lame duck Senator might not be sworn in until November 29th. Sure, because Jessie White is corrupt and by default a Democrat, he may have tried to canvass the special election earlier with an Alexi G. win. And by the way, Kirk will be there for 2/3 or more of the lame duck session; they will be missing a grand total of three days at most, and more likely two. (The Senate had no votes Monday, was out of session Tuesday, and will likely have no votes Friday)