I haven’t been following this issue nearly as closely as it deserves; but Blue Indiana and the Indiana Law Blog, in particular, have been doing a great job on the ongoing saga of early voting in Lake County.
The story involves legal wrangling over satellite offices for early voting in Lake County. Initially only Crown Point had an early voting site in the Lake County government center there. On September 23, the Lake County election board voted, along party lines, to open satellite offices for voting in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago. The Republican members claimed that it required a unanimous decision of the election board to open those satellite offices.
The Republicans filed suit in the Lake County Superior Court requesting that the satellite offices be enjoined. Superior Court judge Calvin Hawkins granted a temporary restraining order preventing the early voting in those largely Democratic cities. The Democrats removed the case to the federal court. In the meantime, a group of Democrats filed their own suit in the Lake County Circuit Court requesting that it enter an order requiring the satellite vote centers to be open.
The federal court kicked the Superior case back down to the Superior judge. The circuit court entered an order requiring the centers to remain open. The superior court declined to intervene any further as of yesterday.
The latest is that the Indiana Supreme Court has entered an order consolidating the circuit and superior court cases and putting them both back in the superior court. The Supreme Court specifically did not rule on whether the superior court had jurisdiction or on the merits of the case. It set forth an expedited procedure for the parties to exercise their right to an automatic change of the judge if they so desired.
Thomas at Blue Indiana has suggested that the statute appears fairly clear that disputes with decisions of the election board are to be taken to the circuit court per IC 3-6-5.2-9. On the other hand, the Republicans seem to have a strong case that satellite voting centers are to be opened only upon unanimous vote of the election board per IC 3-11-10-26.3(b). The circuit court, in allowing the vote centers to remain open, noted that the Republican members who voted against the resolution to open satellite offices declined to provide a reason and that allowing a vote center in Crown Point while denying them in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago might very well be unconstitutional. (At the preliminary injunction stage of the proceedings the judge is considering likely outcomes when the case gets a full blown hearing.)
So, for the moment, voters can cast votes in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago. I wonder what happens to the votes cast there if those vote centers are ultimately closed. One would think that votes should get counted even if voters’ election officials failed them through inter-party wrangling. On the other hand: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Lake County.”
Update
To give some idea of the numbers involved, Lake County, Indiana has a population of about 500,000, making it Indiana’s second largest county (after Marion County (Indianapolis)). Overall, the racial makeup of the county is 66.72% White, 25.33% Black or African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.82% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.96% from other races, and 1.85% from two or more races. 12.20% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. However, for Crown Point, with a population of about 20,000, about 95% of the population is white. Meanwhile, Hammond has a population of 85,000 people, of whom 62% are white (non-Hispanic), 21% are Hispanic, and 15% are black. East Chicago has a population of 32,000 people of whom 12% are white (non-Hispanic), 51% Hispanic, and 36% black. Finally, Gary has a population of 102,000 people, of whom 84% are black, 12% are white, and 5% are Hispanic.
Lake County’s 500,000 people represent approximately 8% of Indiana’s total population and, as such, its vote can be expected to play a significant part in determining the fate of Indiana’s 11 electoral votes. In addition, it has a substantial black population, and it is very much in Chicago’s sphere of influence. As such, it can be expected to break heavily for Senator Obama.
Regardless of your politics, anyone who needs to derive meaning from the Indiana Code (IC) has my most profound sympathy.
Ah, the Indiana Code is a work of artful simplicity compared to, say, the United States Code. (Title 3 of the Indiana Code regarding elections might be one of the exceptions, however.)
Vote early. Vote often. I just hope the northwest Indiana votes get counted in time for the satisfaction of the TV news network pundits to call the winners by the 6:02 commercial break.
If Indiana code was breached in allowing offices to be opened without a unanimous vote, then those votes should be set aside and dealt with by the election board one vote at a time.
Still can be counted, but with more attention to the specifics of each ballot.
I don’t think I like the idea of early voting centers; especially after this controversy. The biggest problem here is that the majority of the people south of the Borman can easily get to Crown Point if they want to and vote early. (For example, I drove by the Government Center going between two different meetings and gave a fleeting thought to stopping and voting. But then I remembered that I like the feeling of going to the American Legion on the day of the election and then waiting up that night for the results-so I kept on driving.) For the residents of Gary, and East Chicago (and to a lesser extent, Hammond) transportation is a real issue. Lake County isn’t teeming with public transportation options that take you to Crown Point easily. In fact I really don’t know how one makes it from downtown Gary to the Government Center for a court case if one does not have a car. And yet I also know that north Lake county has been the hot-bed for voter fraud in the past; especially East Chicago. Even the dead vote there!
My personal view is that if we are going to be dumb enough to allow early voting, we have to make it to where it is available for all citizens of a county in a reasonable manner. I wonder about the constitutionality of NOT having the satillite sites; not to mention the racial implications. It is up to the county election board to then make sure that the vote is fair and untainted. And with Lake county-with or without early voting-I say, “GOOD LUCK!!!!”
And I hope that no one is trying to use Marion County as an exaple of a big county being able to have one site open (frankly I don’t know what the hell they are doing down there; seeing as we are in the Chicago media market). With Unigov, their public transportation is light years ahead of ours.
And if we have a repeat of the May primary…I just might get wasted that night….
At least the concern shown over satellite sites indicates that the end-of-night tallies at least theoretically bear some relationship to the votes cast.