IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
TIMUEL BLACK, VINNIE HALL and )
CLEO WILSON, on behalf of themselves )
and all persons similarly situated, )) Civil Action No:
Plaintiffs, )
vs. ))
WILLIAM M. McGUFFAGE, Chairman; )
ELAINE ROUPAS, Vice Chairman; KAY D. )
HOLLOWAY, DAVID E. MURRAY, PHILLIP )
R. O'CONNOR, ALBERT PORTER, )
and WANDA L. REDNOUR, members of the )
Illinois State Board of Elections, all in their )
official capacities; and the CHICAGO BOARD )
OF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS, ))
Defendants. )
COMPLAINT
Preliminary Statement
1. This is a civil rights class action brought by individual African-American voters
pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1973(f) and 1983 and 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 et. seq., challenging the non-
uniform, arbitrary and unequal system of voting in Illinois as violative of Section 2 of the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States.
2. Defendants McGuffage, Roupas, Holloway, Murray, O'Connor, Porter, and
Rednour ("state defendants"), without justification, through the certification and approval of
election systems, treat voters unfairly and unequally by approving for use in some election
jurisdictions punch card voting systems which have a substantially higher rate of error in
recording, counting and tabulating votes, than the optical scan voting systems which defendants
authorize for use in other election jurisdictions. The state defendants also treat voters unequally
by allowing voters in election jurisdictions using optical scan systems to be notified prior to the
SNIPPETS:
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
Rednour, without justification, through the certification and approval of
election systems, treat voters unfairly and unequally by approving for use in some election
recording, counting and tabulating votes, than the optical scan voting systems which
The state defendants also treat voters unequally
by allowing voters in election jurisdictions using optical scan systems to be notified prior
punch card voting systems similar notification of errors in their ballots.
Plaintiffs charge that the
Defendant Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is
systems are used and in which error notification is prohibited as a mater of state law.
African-American voters in Illinois, are afforded equal treatment and fundamental fairness in
Defendant members of the Illinois State Board of Elections William M.
correctly every vote cast, and to not count votes for an office when the voter has cast more
the number of votes which the voter is entitled to cast, or any ballot which cannot be read
The plaintiff class and sub-class satisfy all of the prerequisites stated in Rule
for recording, counting, and tabulating their votes, as well as the opportunity afforded to
Selection of the voting method or system to be used to record the votes cast
Overvotes may occur due to voter confusion or processing error.
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
and the Chicago Board's selection and use of the punch card voting system violates Section 2
Board from selecting and using, punch card voting systems; and, further prohibiting all
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