Indiana

ABC Report Suggests ACORN Is Committing "Voter Fraud"

Josh Kalven — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:57:04 -0700

Yesterday, ABC News published an article on the various election-related controversies brewing in Lake County, IN. Unlike the awful CNN segment we debunked yesterday, ABC included the battle over early voting sites in their report and did a decent job of explaining the issues at play. However, the second half of the piece was devoted to questions surrounding faulty voter registration forms submitted to the county board of elections by the group ACORN. And like CNN, ABC failed to include two integral bits of context: 1) according to ACORN, they are required by Indiana law to submit all registration forms they receive, and 2) before submitting those problematic forms, the organization itself flagged them as incomplete or "suspicious." This context matters because it undercuts the suggestion from those on the right that ACORN was attempting to dupe election officials into believing the registrations were legitimate.

Furthermore, ABC -- like so many of the news outlets covering this story -- never makes the crucial distinction between registration fraud and voter fraud. The American Prospect's Adam Serwer explains:

As I've said before, the former is really easy to do, even by accident, and the latter is extremely difficult and rarely occurs. The sheer volume of ACORN registration forms found in Indiana suggests the forms were deliberately filled out wrong, but they do not in any sense prove that there is a widespread liberal conspiracy to steal the election. More likely, ACORN workers were stealing time and trying to get paid without actually doing their jobs. Given how easily the forms were discovered, it would have to be the most inept scheme in the history of the United States.

The article's subheadline read: "Democrats, Republicans Set to Spar in Federal Court Over Early Voting, Voter Fraud Claims." Meanwhile, the section of the report devoted to the ACORN issue was titled "Voter Fraud." And this terminology pervaded the report itself [emphasis added]:

Republicans say they believe the [early voting] hearing camouflages the real problem: voter fraud. [...]

[Lake Co. GOP chairman John] Curley believes the federal litigation distracts from the issue of voter fraud that has plagued his county before.

He points to hundreds of voter registration forms that have arrived in the mail, which he claims are "mostly fraudulent."

One application was delivered in August and signed by a Jimmy Johns of 10839 Broadway. The application is signed and dated, but calls to the phone number listed on the application reveal that it is for a Jimmy Johns restaurant in Crown Point.

Oh, and that Jimmy Johns registration -- it was flagged as suspicious by ACORN before arriving at the board of elections. But you wouldn't know that from this report.

Indiana Organizers Speak Out About GOP Voter Suppression In Lake County

Josh Kalven — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:31:27 -0700

As I explained in my recent summary of the dispute, Republicans in Northwest Indiana have used legal challenges to block "satellite" early voting centers from opening in three minority rich, heavily low-income cities -- Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago. These three polling places have remained closed even as early voting commenced at the Lake County clerk's office in Crown Point (located over a half-hour to the south) and despite the fact that all three towns had enjoyed early voting during the presidential primary.

After winning a a circuit court victory on Monday, labor and civil rights leaders held a press conference yesterday, calling on the Lake County Board of Elections to obey the court order and begin early voting in the three cities. Watch it:

But, hours after the press conference concluded, I got word that District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen -- a Bush appointee -- had vacated the circuit court decision in lieu of a separate federal case pending in his court. The Post-Tribune confirms this:

Lake County Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Arredondo ruled Monday that the three sites should be opened immediately, though U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen had set a hearing on the issue for later this week.

However, federal court records indicate Van Bokkelen vacated Arredondo's order Tuesday during a conference call with attorneys in the case.

So it appears there won't be any further legal developments until he takes up the case on Friday.

Meanwhile, in an Indianapolis Star article yesterday, an attorney for the GOP side argued that opening the three satellite offices would be unfair to Republicans:

David Brooks, an Indianapolis attorney who represents Lake County Republicans, said his clients want a temporary restraining order to block usage of the satellite offices, which they believe give Democrats an unfair advantage.

"The issue isn't whether there's more opportunities to vote," Brooks said. "It's whether it's fair to everyone. They aren't opening any satellite offices in Republican areas. You have to find politically balanced or neutral locations."

It's a bit strange to see Brooks differentiating between fairness and opportunity. Access to voting booths should be proportional to population -- not to partisan geography, as he suggests. Indeed, over 40 percent of Lake County's population live in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago, all of which are located side-by-side at the northernmost boundary. Meanwhile, the sole, open early voting center is located in the center of the county, a half-hour drive away for those with cars and much longer for those on public transportation.

How exactly is that "fair" or "balanced"?

Lake Co. Board Of Elections Plans To Wait On Federal Ruling (UPDATED: Federal Hearing Moved Up)

Josh Kalven — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:48:50 -0700

Here's the latest info on the early voting dispute in Lake County, IN.

As I already reported, a circuit court judge ruled this morning that the Lake County, IN board of elections could commence early voting at three satellite polling places located in the Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago city clerk offices. The ruling opened up the possibility that the board might open these early voting centers as soon as tomorrow, despite telling District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen last Friday that they would wait until he had ruled on a temporary restraining order filed by the local Republican Party to block early voting in the three minority-rich, Democratic cities.

Now comes news that the Lake County board of elections has informed the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that they don't plan to begin early voting until at least Thursday, depending on Van Bokkelen's ruling (he's scheduled to take up the case this Thursday).

The plaintiffs in the circuit court case, along with SEIU, are planning a press conference tomorrow. But it's unclear at the moment what their next move is. On the one hand, they could simply wait for the district court hearing later this week. Another possibility: they could file yet another lawsuit in circuit court, this one directed at the Democratic-led board of elections.

More to come ...

UPDATE (6 pm): I'm hearing that the federal court has moved their hearing up from Thursday to tomorrow morning. So what could happen? Judge Van Bokkelen will either grant the GOP's temporary restraining order (thereby blocking the satellite polling places from opening), throw it out, or remand the case to the circuit court (where it apparently should have been in the first place).

UPDATE (9:15 am, 10/7): A clarification: Van Bokkelen apparently doesn't intend to rule on the case during today's hearing. Here also is the Post-Tribune's article on yesterday's developments. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs are holding a press conference at 1 pm at the Hammond City Clerk's office. More on that later.

(Full disclosure: Progress Illinois is sponsored by the SEIU Illinois State Council)

Judge Rules That Lake Co. Satellite Voting Can Commence

Josh Kalven — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:08:10 -0700

On Saturday, I laid out the basis for the voters' rights battle brewing in Lake County, IN. Essentially, the GOP apparatus there is trying to block efforts to open up early voting centers in three populous, minority-rich cities on the northern edge of the county -- Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago. Instead, the Republicans want voters in those areas to travel south to Crown Point, where the sole early voting center is currently located.

On Friday, a federal judge scheduled an October 9 hearing to consider the GOP's temporary restraining order (TRO) seeking to block early voting in the three northern locations. He also got an agreement from the county board of elections to hold off on opening those voting centers until he had ruled on the TRO.

However, new developments today may lead the board to open early voting in the three cities in the next 24 hours.

According to sources in Lake County, a group of plaintiffs filed a separate lawsuit in Indiana Circuit Court this morning asserting that the ongoing early voting in Crown Point -- but not in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago -- represented a violation of the state constitution. Judge Lorenzo Arredondo agreed and today approved a TRO instructing early voting to commence in these three locales. The plaintiffs included the local steelworkers and teachers unions, along with State Sen. Earline Rogers and a county resident.

Considering that the federal hearing is delayed until Thursday, it's unclear what exactly is going to happen. But I hear that it's possible the three satellite locations will open as early as tomorrow.

There's also some interesting backstory to this. As Blue Indiana explained yesterday, the GOP should have filed their original TRO in Arredondo's court, but instead submitted it to the superior court, where a friendlier judge presided. Not surprisingly, the board of elections quickly moved to have the case transferred to federal court, where the judge who scheduled the Thursday hearing "was apparently not amused" and quickly vacated the superior court's approval of the TRO. It appears Arredondo wasn't all that amused himself.

The plaintiffs and lawyers are scheduled to hold a press conference on the matter tomorrow. We'll have more developments as they arise.

Voter Suppression Battle Brewing In Northwest Indiana

Josh Kalven — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:41:43 -0700

It appears that Lake County, IN may be the latest arena in the GOP's effort to suppress the vote in swing states

First some basics. Under Indiana election law, early voting can only take place in a county clerk's main office. This clearly could be problematic in areas where the county seat is far in distance from the most heavily populated parts of the county. Therefore, the law gives each board of elections the authority to approve early voting centers elsewhere in their county.

Lake County's geography provides the perfect argument for these "satellite" polling places. The county seat, Crown Point, is the 7th most populous city in the county (pop. 24,000) and centrally located. Meanwhile, three of the four biggest municipalities -- Gary (pop. 96,000), Hammond (pop. 77,000), and East Chicago (pop. 30,000) are all located at the northern edge of the county, along Lake Michigan. Together, these towns hold more than 40 percent of the county's residents. (To the right is a population density map of Northwest Indiana. Lake County is visible in the upper left corner and you can see that the most populous areas are crammed at the top.) Moreover, Gary and Hammond are the fifth and sixth largest cities in the state.

It's in the city clerk's offices in these three towns that the Democratic members of the Lake County Board of Elections wanted to open up satellite voting centers. After all, it's about an hour roundtrip drive to Crown Point from any of them.

But on September 24, the two Republican members of the elections board voted against doing so. Their explanation is that Lake County Democratic chairman Rudy Clay made an agreement early in the year with GOP chairman John Corley to allow satellite voting during the state's presidential primary, but not during the general election. Why wouldn't the Republicans want residents of these three towns to have easier access to early voting in the weeks leading up to this historic election? Because they're heavily minority, heavily low-income, and heavily Democratic.

Following the 3-2 party-line vote, the board of elections proceeded with its plan to open up the voting centers. Meanwhile, the county Republican Party argued that state law requires each board to unanimously approve any satellite voting and pledged to mount a legal challenge. The Democrats countered that voting centers located in city clerk's offices -- which are part of the county government -- don't fall under the statute cited by the GOP. This is where things get murky. From the Post-Tribune:

At the center of the argument is a 1993 state law creating the combined Lake County Election and Voter Registration Board, a five-member body which now administers elections in the county.

The county clerk is in charge of elections in 91 of the state's 92 counties.

Not in Lake County, though.

According to Republican Election Board attorney Bruce Lambka, satellite voting offices can be set up without a vote in county clerk's offices only in counties where the clerk is in charge of elections.

"In one county, incidentally this one, we vote in the Office of Elections and Registration," Lambka said.

Representatives of Secretary of State Todd Rokita declined to offer an interpretation of the law.

Rokita, by the way, is a Republican.

Yesterday, the GOP's legal challenge made its way to federal court, where Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen scheduled a hearing for next Thursday and convinced the Democrats not to begin early voting at the three locations until he ruled on the temporary restraining order filed by the Republicans.

After the recent evidence of voter suppression in Michigan, you can be sure more attention will be paid to this issue in the coming week, perhaps even at the national level. The hearing will ultimately focus on competing interpretations of state election law and the GOP leaders will tell the press that their actions are driven by legal considerations, not political ones. But it's important to remember the critical moment in this whole process: when the two Republican members of the board voted against the additional voting centers, each located in heavily-populated, minority-rich areas. That tells you all you need to know about their motivations.

RELATED: Blue Indiana has some more detail on the legal maneuvering this week.

We also have these updates:

October 6: Judge Rules That Lake Co. Satellite Voting Can Commence

October 6: Lake Co. Board Of Elections Plans To Wait On Federal Ruling (UPDATED: Federal Hearing Moved Up)

McCain Aide On Indiana: "We're Going To Go There"

Josh Kalven — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:49:24 -0700

It looks like John McCain's departure from Michigan may free up some more resources to aid their meager Indiana efforts. From an AP article published this morning:

In Indiana, surveys show a competitive race after Obama spent months pouring money into the state and Republicans resisted countering. Now the Republican National Committee is running TV ads to fight for the state's 11 votes, and McCain senior adviser Greg Strimple said: "We're going to go there."

Contrast that with this McCain campaign quote from a September 20 Time article:

Indiana Republicans proudly say they don't need to pay for advertising because the Democrats are merely playing catch up. "We want [the GOP] to put resources in the true battleground states," says Kevin Ober, the Indiana Republican Party's executive director, adding: "The polls are already showing us ahead."

What a difference two weeks makes.

McCain Exits Michigan

Josh Kalven — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:58:01 -0700

Wow. Big news today out of Michigan. The McCain campaign has announced that they're pulling all staff out of the state and redistributing them to Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida.

So taking that into consideration, let's have a look at the current map. What emerges is that McCain is being forced to defend the following Bush states: Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio. Meanwhile, with Michigan abandoned and Pennsylvania looking increasingly out of reach, there are only two Kerry states that stick out as possible GOP pick-ups and they're both in our neck of the woods: Minnesota and Wisconsin.

On the topic of Wisconsin, it's worth reading this New York Times piece from last weekend about the pushback pro-Obama union leaders are experiencing among voters there. Also of note is a new Research 2000 poll out showing McCain with only a one-point lead in Indiana.

Meanwhile, Rich Miller linked to this TPM article that quotes AFL-CIO deputy political director Mike Podhorzer discussing the current electoral environment at length. The gist:

Podhorzer stressed that he is impressed by Obama's gains and is convinced Obama is on track to win right now. But he said that the union's interaction with battleground-state voters, combined with extensive internal polling, indicate that this dynamic is anything but fixed and that there's much more fluidity than is generally acknowledged.

Podhorzer ascribed the fluidity to two factors: The uncertain and rapidly shifting political landscape created by the financial crisis, and the relatively little time Obama has spent as a politician in the national spotlight.

"Low information voters who haven't been following this don't know very much about Obama, in a way that might be different from other elections," he said. "Voters are saying, `I really don't want another four years of this, but I don't know much about him."

I think this is a pretty obvious point, but nonetheless an important one to keep in mind. Public opinion is moving in Obama's direction, no doubt. But that doesn't mean that the support he's gaining is by any means solid. A serious gaffe, or a mini-controversy, or certain unforeseen events couldn't swing things back the other way.

MSNBC Calls Indiana A "Toss-Up"

Angela Caputo — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:32:26 -0700

Evidence that Obama is pulling ahead in Indiana continues to mount as MSNBC reports today that it's moving the Hoosier State into its growing "toss-up" category:

The most surprising move in our map is Indiana, a state that no one believed was a new battleground -- even when Obama's team was first laying out its 25-30 state strategy. Indiana, in fact, is probably the surprise of the cycle. It's a state that probably is somewhere BETWEEN Lean McCain and Toss-up, but because the state's poll numbers look more like a Toss-up state than a Lean McCain state, we're tipping it into the Toss-up category for now, especially since the RNC has decided to ad the state to its TV buy list.

Following reports of a $100,000 ad buy last week, the Republican National Committee announced over the weekend that it's in fact buying $740,000 worth of airtime in Indiana. Their spots will air over eight days, beginning tomorrow. (H/T Blue Indiana)

MSNBC also moved Florida and North Carolina into the toss-up category today. Under the changing landscape, the Illinois senator's delegate lead over McCain has shifted from slim to significant. That has the MSNBC political team predicting that the election could actually end at midnight this time around:

With the Toss-up list expanding at this point in the campaign, it gives the opportunity for either candidate to end up winning somewhat comfortably in the Electoral College. In the last two elections, the candidates basically split the final Toss-up states in half. Two weeks ago, we appeared to be on a similar trajectory. Today, that doesn't seem to be the case. The one thing the public may have learned about the candidates is that the two have VERY divergent worldviews. There's a bright line between these two candidates; it's not a case where both are trying to blur their views.

Also of note, the FiveThirtyEight simulation engine is currently putting Obama's chances of winning at over 80 percent.

RNC Going On The Air In Indiana

Josh Kalven — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:36:11 -0700

As we noted earlier, there has been some confusion as to whether the McCain campaign was or was not buying up airtime in Indiana this week. Well, it turns out that it's actually the Republican National Commitee's independent expenditure arm making the six-figure buy:

Two sources familiar with the media-buying plans say the Republican National Committee is set to spend six figures shoring up John McCain in the traditionally Republican state of Indiana.

The RNC's independent expenditure arm — which is outside the direct control of the campaign or the committee — has placed a $100,000 buy with WISH-TV in Indianapolis, the CBS affiliate in the capital, one source said. Two sources said the buys across the state start on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

The distinction between McCain and the RNC making the buy is pretty irrelevant at this point. After all, the campaign and the committee began building a joint fundraising operation shortly after the primaries.

Meanwhile, Blue Indiana updates us on the Obama camp's ever-expanding ground game in the Hoosier State:

The thing to remember is that although the RNC can dump some cash here on negative attack ads, they can't compete with the on-the-ground operation that Obama has had in place across the state for months. This election will more than anything be about turnout, and Obama has the clear advantage on the front. [...]

And just this afternoon, we get word that another five Campaign for Change offices are opening across the state. The new field operations in Batesville, Chesterton, Indianapolis (another one!), Shererville, and Crawfordsville bring the total up to 37.

CQ Shifts Indiana's Electoral Rating

Josh Kalven — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:41:07 -0700

It's a new day, and with it comes more evidence that Indiana is in play this election year. Congressional Quarterly this morning updated its ratings for three states. It changed Indiana from "Republican Favored" to "Leans Republican":

Though the “bounce” in polls enjoyed by Republican candidate John McCain following his nominating convention early this month briefly called this strategy into doubt, Obama’s recent resurgence to a lead in most national polls — and gains in many state polls — has revived his party’s hopes of winning in states lost by Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

CQ Politics, in fact, has changed its electoral vote ratings for three states — all longstanding Republican presidential strongholds — where Obama appears increasingly competitive. Virginia, which has 13 electoral votes, has been reclassified as No Clear Favorite, CQ Politics’ category for the most competitive races, after previously being rated Leans Republican. CQ Politics also changed the ratings of both Indiana, with 11 electoral votes, and North Carolina, with 15 electoral votes, to Leans Republican, a category for highly competitive races that sweeps in states where McCain has a slight edge, from the less competitive Republican Favored category.

(H/T Blue Indiana)