Understatement of the Week: Robert Delaney

The year's first UPI Understatement of the Week invites the observer to look into what the formidable U.S. Constitution says about grocery lists.

There's the right to free speech, the right to carry arms and the right to representation in government, which is where St. Clair County Clerk Robert Delaney, as an Illinois state election official, began what is apparently an illustrious career in the Art of the Understatement.

Delaney admitted in October that he had failed to send out 1,297 absentee ballots to military personnel in time to comply with Military and Overseas Empowerment Act, known as MOVE, which requires absentee ballots sent out 45 days in advance.

Delaney, a Democrat, sent them 14 days too late, Biggov.com reported. But he quickly became the whipping boy on the issue which was a far wider problem that just St. Clair County.

His propensity for understatement didn't help. This week he said he did everything right -- almost.

Last year is when the grocery list question became relevant. Delaney said he was actually waiting for a court decision on whether the Constitution Party should be included on the ballot and did not want to send absentee ballots twice. At that point, as of last October, he uttered Understatement No. 1, saying, "This is not just like sending out your grocery list."

He also added a candidate for Worst Campaign Slogan Of All Time: "I really don't care what the Department of Justice thinks," he said.

The brouhaha continues and as Delaney works his way from one Understatement to another he deserves this week's honors on the UPI list for persistence, if nothing else.

This week he said, as quoted in the Illinois Statehouse news, "I was being diligent with the county's money, being diligent with not having all this confusion going on."

Wait for it ...

And then he added, "And the only mistake I made is -- I did not follow the federal law."