The Louisville Courier Journal is running an AP story by Mike Smith focusing on Senator Garton’s primary challenge. Senator Bob Garton was elected in 1970 and has been leader of the Senate since 1980. For much of that time he controlled the Senate with 3 of his colleagues: Larry Borst, Morrie Mills, and Joe Harrison. Harrison is retiring this year, Mills retired several years ago, and Borst was ousted in a primary challenge by social conservative Brent Waltz. Garton faces a similar challenge from Greg Walker, another social conservative who is the darling of anti-choice groups like Indiana Right to Life.

In my opinion, it’s a shame that Republicans more focused on fiscal responsibility are being targeted by Republicans with more repressive social agendas. By-and-large, I and (I think) most Hoosiers agree with a responsible fiscal policy. Social conservatism is much more divisive. Unfortunately, I think less informed voters will see “Republican” and think they’re getting Republicans like Garton and Kenley when really they’ll be getting wingnuts like Waltz and Drozda.

Bob Garton has done an awful lot for the Indiana Senate. My understanding is that the pre-Garton Senate was disorganized at best, corrupt at worst. Sen. Garton was instrumental in giving Indiana an orderly and comparatively open legislative process in the Senate. Despite all that he has done, it’s true that he has controlled the Senate for an awfully long time, and I can see arguments to have him phased out of leadership. But not for the likes of Walker.

Thomas Langhorne has an article for the Evansville Courier Press reporting that Vanderburgh GOP Chairman Brent Grafton has resigned over a controversy over the unauthorized alteration of a state legislator’s profile in a national Republican database.

Grafton came under fire early this week for allowing state Rep. Suzanne Crouch’s primary opponent and several unnamed GOP volunteers to use his log-in credentials to access a secure area of the Republican National Committee’s “Voter Vault” database.

Grafton’s password was enough to enable anyone who had it to edit Voter Vault’s content.

Someone – Crouch’s opponent, Jonathan Fulton, vehemently denies it was him – altered Crouch’s anti-abortion designation to say that she is “pro-choice.”

Advance Indiana has some good coverage of the GOP “Voter Vault” brouhaha here and here. Evansville Courier Press coverage here and here.

MicroVote got its certification, allowing counties to use its machines for Tuesday’s primary elections. Reading the articles in the Courier Press and elsewhere, I get the sense that the certification was granted, not because the Indiana Election Commission was certain of the company’s software, but because there was a deadline and things would get complicated if the certification was not granted.

On a separate note, Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita said Friday he would determine fines for another large election machine vendor – Election Systems & Software – at a May 8 meeting.

Rokita’s office has cited ES&S for 30 violations in a complaint and can now fine the company, which provides the election system in Vanderburgh County, up to $300,000 for each violation. All of the violations listed in the complaint occurred in Marion, Johnson and St. Joseph counties.

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has an article in the Louisville Courier Journal on county election officials fears that Indiana’s new statewide voter registration system will create delays and problems for this Tuesday’s primary.

They say the computerized system is too slow, and they worry it will crash when election officials in all 92 counties are trying to look up registration information for voters who show up at the wrong polling sites or need to find their precinct.

“I think it’s going to be total chaos,” Clark County Deputy Clerk Shirley Bell said last week. “You have to wait five or 10 minutes to get somebody’s record up.
. . .
“The system does work and it has been heralded as doing everything needed to be done,” said AJ Feeney-Ruiz, press secretary for Secretary of State Todd Rokita. “It is slow sometimes because we’re still in the early stage of using it.”

He said county officials “need to bear with us.”

In addition Laura Herzog, elections supervisor in Hendricks County said the system stopped working for a couple of hours on Saturday and she is not 100% confident it is putting all of the voters in the right precinct.