On February 16, the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, removed a candidate from the Illinois Democratic primary for a judicial position. Rice v Cook County Officers Electoral Board, 2024-COEL-7.
According to this story, early voting had already started, although no postal ballots had been sent out yet. Votes for the removed candidate, Ashonta Rice, will not be tallied.
The lower court had also ruled against the candidate, but had stayed its own decision.
ONE MORE REASON TO N-O-T HAVE *EARLY* VOTING. ???
IE IF KNOWN EARLIER THAT CANDIDATE WAS NOT QUALIFIED TO BE ON BALLOT– THEN OTHER CANDIDATES MAY HAVE RUN FOF THE OFFICE.
It’s also another reason to not have mail voting, since ballots have to be mailed out and have time to be mailed back in. All voting should be voters showing up in person on one election day, period.
NOOO VOTES FOR USA TROOPERS FIGHTING BARBARIANS OVERSEAS — RISKING DEATH / LIFETIME INJURIES ???
No. They have enough to focus on without the distraction of politics. But, only those who have served should be eligible to vote. Those who shirked military duty should not be allowed anywhere near the voting places on election day. Voting should also be limited to those between 40 and 80 years old, among other things.
No mail in votes you don’t know who is voting by doing mail in votes should be in person . If they are illegals and non registered voters people move all the time and forget to change their addresses for drivers license or id’s and someone who is living in that residence may not be registered to vote and may not be legal.
I assume you agree it should be limited to male, White, property owning Christian gun owners as well?
Of course!
Snail mail votes, electronic voting, absentee voting and early voting must be banned under all circumstances to prevent fraud and ensure honest vote counts of eligible voters only.
Headline should be: “Chicago Being Chicago”
Ashonta Rice was formerly known as Ashonta Akiwowo. Her divorce from Christopher Akiwowo is pending. Ashonta is a lawyer and head of Akiwowo Law Group, where Ashonta Rice is listed as one of two lawyers. It is apparently her law practice, and not a joint practice. Christopher works at a counseling service with his father. He is not obviously a lawyer.
She filed for the judicial position as Ashonta Rice and had taken other affirmative changes such as changing her driver’s license and voter registration. If her divorce were final, her name would have been changed (in a divorce, it is optional whether a party retains their married name or not).
Two people whose only interest was that election laws of the state of Illinois be complied with filed a challenge before the Cook County Officers Electoral Board. That board ruled that the use of Ashonta Rice on the ballot was OK, but that she had failed to indicate her former names (within the last three years) on her application, and booted her from the ballot.
Rice appealed to the circuit court which upheld the decision of the electoral board. She then appealed to an appellate court, which stayed the decision of the electoral board and circuit court, while the case was under review.
This meant that Rice was on the primary ballot. Voting had begun at two early early (sic) voting locations. Once the appellate court had upheld the decision of the circuit court/electoral board, the stay was lifted. The Board of Elections shut down early voting in the Democratic Primary so voting machines could be reprogrammed. Republicans, Libertarians, and non-partisan voters were able to vote in their primaries. Early voting had not yet started in Cook County (outside Chicago), or at the ward early voting locations, and not all mail ballots had been mailed out.
I agree with Smart Home Information Technology.
@Jim
The Washington Examiner should pay you for writing a more interesting article than their journalist did.
Is failing to indicate her former names “immaterial”? I remember talk about how not dating the envelope for mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania could be considered immaterial – in other words, not a reason to reject the ballot. I also remember a BAN post recently about a transgender person having ballot access issues. I forget what happened.
Also, I think Richard would agree that the Purcell principle should not apply here – that it is OK to remove someone from the ballot even though voting is already underway.
You can vote early but not by mail? How? Do you go to town hall and fill out a ballot there?
Some places have early in person voting. Like mail voting, electronic voting, and absentee voting, it’s a pernicious practice that should be done away with as soon as possible.
REMINDER- ABSENTEE VOTING — GOT GOING WITH UNION ARMY/NAVY FIGHTING CONFEDS IN 1861-1865 IN SOUTHERN STATES.
Corvette Kitchen Fire is exactly correct.
@AC,
The Washington Examiner article had the sentence, “[a] reason for her removal was not provided.” That made me curious.
The complaint included petition forms from a previous attempt to be elected judge, and each sheet of the petition sheet includes:
If required pursuant to 10 ILCS 5/7-10.2, complete the following (this information will appear on the ballot)
FORMERLY KNOWN AS ________________________________ UNTIL NAME CHANGED ON ______________________________
(List all names during last 3 years) (List date of each name change)
In the previous campaign she had run as Ashonta Rice-Akimoto, and circulated the petition herself as Ashonta Rice-Akimoto and had sworn before a notary that she was Ashonta Rice-Akimoto.
The purpose of most of the evidence in the 328 page (sic) filing was to demonstrate that she was either Ashonta Akimoto or Ashonta Rice-Akimoto until recently when she started using Ashonta C. Rice.
10 ILCS 5/7-10.2 specifies the name a candidate may use in association with their candidacy including use of initials, nicknames, etc.
But then there is a section covering recent name changes that gives specific exceptions such as being adopted, being married and adopting your spouse’s surname, or being divorced and resuming use of your former surname, or even a name change associated with a change in gender identity.
Since Ashonta is not officially divorced her resumption of use of her maiden name is not covered by the exception.
@AC,
Texas at one time had extremely limited early voting. If you were going to be out of the county on election day, you could go to the courthouse and vote during the early voting period (a couple of weeks before the election). Only if you were going to be out of the county for the entire early voting period could you vote absentee by mail. In that case you had to apply for a ballot by mail from outside the county. Few people bothered with “absentee voting” since it was a hassle to apply for a ballot.
Over time additional exceptions were made for illness or disabilty, age over 65, and incarceration (non-felons) who might not be able to vote in person on election day.
Eventually they adopted early voting in person without cause. In smaller counties you had to go to the courthouse. In larger counties it was required to have an early voting location for each House District. Since each voting location served multiple election precincts there had to be dozens of ballot styles available. And since a voter could go to any voting location in the county (they weren’t assigned to just one), they had to be able to handle any voting style in the county, which in larger counties could be near 100. The number of early voting locations has increased, so that in my county it is over 100.
Early voting for the March 5 Texas primary began on February 20, two weeks before the election. It would have started on the 19th, but for the holiday. Early voting is for two weeks including the weekend (half day on Sunday) and ends on Friday before election day.
In Texas, the majority of voting happens during early voting. I can go online, and get a map of locations, including estimated wait times.
So in Texas, early voting in person is normative.
Absentee voting is one of the many reasons why it’s a tragedy that the Confederate States lost in the war of Yankee aggression.
Of at first you don’t secede, next time have nukes!
PERHAPS 70 PCT OF UNION ARMY/NAVY VOTES IN 1864 WERE FOR LINCOLN.
UNKNOWN WHICH STATES LINCOLN WON AS A RESULT.
PERHAPS 50,000-100,000 MORE CASUALTIES ON BOTH SIDES AFTER 1864 ELECTION —
SHERMAN IN GA-SC-NC
GRANT IN VA
MANY NORTHERN DEMS ALSO APPROVED PROPOSED 13TH AMDT IN JAN 1865 IN CONGRESS- POINTING FINGER OF FATE.
TRUMP ABOUT TO BRING BACK SLAVERY — OF BLACK AND WHITE DONKEYS ???
IE GUARANTEED CIVIL WAR II
@AZ,
Iranians, South Sudanese, and French citizens living in the USA can vote in person. So could Canadian forces serving in Afghanistan or Israeli forces in Gaza.
Are you presuming no voter registration or id? No efforts to identify who’s voting legally or illegally in person? It’s much easier to catch if people are trying to vote illegally in person than it is by mail.
Wrongly spaced, I think you misunderstood. Jim Riley must mean that Iran, South Sudan and France operate in-person voting precincts for their national elections in the US, for their citizens abroad living or working in the US during their nation’s elections to vote at in person.
I’m not wrongly spaced, you are!
But otherwise, maybe you’re right.
I think Canada has a lot of troops in Afghanistan right now. They’re way friendlier and nicer than USAns, so the Taliban let them keep hanging out for the after party. And who wants to fly all the way back to Canada and then back to Afghanistan again just to vote for Trudeau or Poilievre? Of course they have voting precincts set up in Afghanistan!
Plus, it’s a chance to show their Afghan mates that “riding” isn’t just something you do on or with a 4 legged animal, woman in burqa, or young boy. That’s what I call a win/win.
Israelis have, I think, five or more national elections a year. You never know how soon one might happen.
You might argue that Israel is close enough to Gaza for active duty IDF members to take staggered breaks from the theater of action, go vote, and get back to work killing terrorists and people waving white flags before their shift is over.
But, it’s an all hands on deck situation. You don’t want them shlepping all the way to Haifa and back to cast a ballot. Oy gevalt! No, in person voting precincts in the middle of blown up buildings next to other buildings they’re still busy blowing up in Gaza City and Khan Younis is clearly the way to go. It also saves a bunch of shekels on gas.
Here is a story from 2011 about Canadian forces in Afghanistan voting.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/it-s-voting-day-s-for-canadian-soldiers-in-afghanistan-1.632599?cache=xceuacapshbcr%3FcontactForm%3Dtrue
French voters in the USA can vote at consulates or special voting locations. In TX-OK-AR they can vote at the consulate in Houston, or locations in Austin and Dallas.
For Parliament, France has established constituencies for French citizens living outside the country.
I was right! And also I’m not the one who’s wrongly spaced!