From the Beacon News:

High court rejects Kane ballot critics
• Votes in limbo: Judges say objectors can refile

November 15, 2006
By STEVE LORD Staff Writer

Kane County will have to wait at least until after Nov. 20 to count about 1,100 provisional ballots from people who voted after 7 p.m. on election day.

On Tuesday, the Illinois Supreme Court extended a stay it issued last week on counting the votes through Nov. 20. But in doing so, the court denied a motion to throw the votes out altogether.

Justices denied the motion, filed by the Chicago-based Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, to have the ballots declared void. But the court will allow the objection to be refiled in another form.

One reason for extending the stay on counting the votes by two days -- the stay originally was issued for 10 days on Nov. 8 -- was to give the objectors a chance to refile their case to void the ballots, if they want to.

While the motion ruled on Tuesday was from the Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, it also involved lawyers from the Illinois Democratic Party and from Democratic lawyers within Kane County.

The Illinois party intervened on behalf of candidates John Laesch in the 14th Congressional District; Annie Collins, who ran for Kane County clerk; and Carolyn Shannon, a Kane County voter, all of whom were named specifically in the court's order Tuesday.

The group from within Kane County filed to intervene as a friend of the court.

"The order seems to indicate they have to file something in Circuit Court," said Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti, who appeared in court in Chicago on behalf of County Clerk John Cunningham.

The Nov. 20 date is key, because Cunningham, by law, must certify the Nov. 7 election by Nov. 21.

"Once he certifies, that's it, the election is over," Barsanti said. "They can't let him do that until they determine what happens to those ballots."

Lawyers for the Democratic Party were unavailable for comment Tuesday.

The situation stems from election day snafus in at least 62 precincts that caused those polling places to open late. While many of them opened within an hour or less of the 6 a.m. opening time, some opened later, with the worst being a Dundee Township precinct that opened after 10:30 a.m.

Cunningham appeared in court the afternoon of Nov. 7 to ask that the polls be allowed to stay open later. A 16th Circuit Court judge eventually ruled that all precincts stay open until 8:30 p.m., 1-1/2 hours past the usual 7 p.m. closing time.

Democratic Party lawyers and the coalition attorney filed objections with the state Supreme Court, saying only precincts where there was trouble should stay open later. They said opening all the precincts later gave Republicans an unfair advantage.