In a 3-0 opinion filed Friday by Judge Richard A. Posner, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed an Illinois federal court's dismissal of claims by working mothers who contended that voting in person is a hardship and that the US Constitution requires Illinois to allow them to vote via absentee ballots. Posner wrote: "...the constitutional question is whether the restriction and resulting exclusion are reasonable given interest the restriction serves." The Court concluded that allowing absentee ballots in this instance would increase voter fraud and tallying miscalculations, and that those factors outweighed the hardships of voting in person. Read the opinion [PDF].