If you're a slated candidate of one of the two major political parties in Marion County, you can obtain an up-to-date electronic version of the registered voters from the Marion County Board of Elections. If you're a candidate not backed by either party, you get nothing. There's no written policy that says that, but that's what happened when judicial candidates not backed by either party attempted to gain access to the same records commonly made available to major party candidates backed by their respective parties. Three judicial candidates and two state representative candidates are announcing that they are filing a lawsuit against the election board to force it to come into compliance with a state law that mandates that it adopt a non-discriminatory policy for making voter registration information available in electronic format to candidates. The judicial candidates include two non-slated Democratic candidates, Greg Bowes and Mark King, and one non-slated Republican candidate, Paul Ogden. The other two candidates are Democrats seeking election to the House of Representatives in Districts 92 and 100. They are Brian Cooper and Zach Mulholland, neither of whom were slated by the Democratic Party to run for office.
This is a no-brainer. The court has no choice other than to order the Marion Co. Election Board to comply with the state law. Marion Co. Clerk Beth White parted company with the two party appointees to the election board, attorneys Mark Sullivan and Patrick Dietrick, because she understands what the state law requires. Sullivan and Dietrick offered lame, inexcusable reasons for the board not adopting a non-discriminatory policy. Nonetheless, taxpayers will be forced to spend money on a lawsuit that could have and should have been avoided. The sad thing is that the local media has been made aware of what has been taking place for some time and has chosen to ignore the story. If Dennis Ryerson spent as much time ensuring that his reporters covered hard news as he does in reporting on the kitchen designs of the local rich and famous, his newspaper's readership might not be in a free fall and his bosses may not have prompted his early retirement.
UPDATED: The complaint filed in the Marion Co. Circuit Court today can be viewed by clicking here.
5 comments:
The Parties need to pay the City's legal expenses to fight this lawsuit. The Voter Registration Office has done their bidding all these years, to the detriment of democracy in Marion County.
HEI, let's clarify...you mean the POLITICAL Parties should pay the legal expenses...not we plaintiffs, parties to the lawsuit. I agree.
Let's not forget who is on the ballot this time...the county chairman's wife. Bowes could well knock her down to number 11 and off the bench. Don't think Ed Treacy doesn't know that.
As the Public Party Candidate for mayor of Indianapolis 2011 .I to was given nothing.Maybe i to should join suit? Donnie Harold Harris write In candidate for Governor of Indiana Harris-Fish For Indiana 2012
Does one need any other reason to vote for these non-slated candidates for Judge?
If Greg Bowes is reading this, I am rooting for him!
Good idea, HEI, but the costs for defending this lawsuit should have to come out of the pension fund to which the offending employees in City Legal contribute.
Let the employees pay for their anti-American acts, not the taxpayers. There should be very real personal consequences for these public employees using their taxpayer-funded offices to attack this country.
If PERF is at risk of being bankrupted by the tyranny of recalcitrant employees, peer pressure may cause them to reconsider their attacks on freedom.
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