Star: "Give Outsiders What Insiders Have"

Its coverage on its news pages of this story has been very weak, but at least the Star's editors have come down on the side of the Marion County Election Board adopting a nondiscriminatory policy as mandated by state law on how it makes electronic voter registration records available to candidates of all stripes.

Political parties have the right to anoint favored candidates in primary elections, even if the voting public has the right to feel unfairly limited in its choices.

Where the prerogative ends is where slated candidates enjoy an advantage courtesy of the public.

That is the heart of a matter involving five unslated candidates for office who are asking the Marion Circuit Court to grant them access to the county's voter registration database . . .

The parties, which have the unseemly luxury of evenly splitting the 16 Superior Court seats in the general election, find the likes of Greg Bowes, Mark King and Paul Ogden to be an inconvenience in the primary. For the voting boards to inconvenience those three and their co-plaintiffs Brian Cooper and Zach Mulholland, without a compelling practical reason, is an injustice to them and to the voters.