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At a get-out-the-vote gathering Sunday morning at a Bronzeville restaurant, Congressman Danny Davis responded to U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk's suggestion to Republican activists that voter integrity squads be on site for voting in Chicago's black neighborhoods, which tend to vote Democratic.

"Rep. Kirk thinks something will happen to his vote in these neighborhoods," Davis said. "Well, I'm here to tell him he's not getting any votes here. My question is why would he target areas that historically vote Democrat- "

Recently, without his knowledge, Kirk was caught on tape saying, "I have now funded the largest voter integrity program in 15 years for the state of Illinois. These are lawyers and other people that will be deployed in key vulnerable precincts. For example, [the] South and West side of Chicago, Rockford, Metro-East where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat." The comments were first reported on the blog ArchPundit.

The issue of Kirk's voter integrity squads was raised at a gathering of African American elected officials at Pearl's Place restaurant Sunday on the South Side. The event was held to stress the importance of the black vote in the Nov. 2 midterm elections. Kirk's opponent, Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias, was there and called the tactic "insulting and disheartening and not what this state needs right now."

The Kirk campaign responded Sunday via spokesman Kirsten Kukowski: "Congressman Kirk supports statewide efforts to ensure a transparent election in which every legal vote is counted and every legal vote counts. A fair and transparent election should not be a partisan issue. The legal votes of Americans here at home and those wearing uniform overseas should all be counted fairly."

Republicans have raised concerns that military ballots might not be counted because nearly a third of the state's 110 election authorities failed to ship out ballots to military and overseas voters by the federal deadline of Sept. 18. Illinois election officials say they are working with the U.S. Justice Department to ensure all the ballots are counted by the deadline Nov. 16.