Earlier today, I touched on the Illinois Republican's shaky lawsuit stemming from a batch of problematic voter registrations in north suburban Lake County.  The Grayslake Review is reporting that the case is headed for federal court, apparently at the request of some of the defendants:

Officials for the Illinois and Lake County Republican Party called the move a stalling tactic by Democrats to delay a decision in the case until after the election.

But Matt Flamm, an attorney for the Lake County Democratic Party, said Republicans only filed the suit on Tuesday, just seven days before the election, and that the suit raises federal law issues.

Democrat officials claim the lawsuit is a politically motivated effort by Republicans to suppress the votes of new Democratic voters.

Meanwhile, here's former State Rep. Lauren Beth Gash's statement on the matter, sent out in her capacity as chair of the Tenth Congressional District Democrats:

We strongly condemn voter registration fraud, obviously. That said, this Illinois Republican Party lawsuit is a silly and transparent attempt to disenfranchise thousands of newly and properly registered voters in a desperate attempt to save Mark Kirk from defeat at the polls.

The Republicans realize that they cannot win based on their ideas, so they are creating an eleventh-hour hysteria about voter fraud , when in fact the Lake County Clerk is already acting as required by law to weed out the irregular registrations that occur every election cycle.  And we strongly encourage that.

This move by the dispirited and desperate Illinois GOP is nothing more than a smokescreen that they hope will allow them to make it harder for people to vote for Barack Obama, Dan Seals and all Democratic candidates in Lake County.