On January 10, the state of Illinois promised to make certain changes in how it handles overseas absentee ballots, in the upcoming special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 2nd district. The federal government had sued Illinois because the state was not planning to send out overseas absentee primary ballots, nor overseas absentee election ballots, at least 45 days beforehand.

The state will send write-in primary ballots, and after the state knows who is on the primary ballots, the state will notify each overseas voter who had received a ballot as to which candidates are on the primary ballots. Presumably the notification will be by e-mail. Then the voter can cast a write-in vote. The lawsuit is USA v State of Illinois, northern district, 13-cv-189.