« Ind. Decisions - Petition to transfer in trade secrets case pending before the Supreme Court | Main | Ind. Decisions - Spencer County adult business ordered to close »

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ind. Gov't. - "Candidate who checked wrong box is out"

A story today in the Indianapolis Star reports:

Carmel -- A candidate for the City Council was booted from the Republican Party's May primary ballot because he checked the wrong box about his voting history on an election form.

The Hamilton County Election Board voted 2-1 to remove Larry A. Fritz, leaving incumbent Councilman Rick Sharp unopposed in the GOP primary for City Council District 1. * * *

"This was an honest mistake. My name is correct on the form, and I live where it says I live. We didn't set out to deceive anybody," Fritz said. * * *

Fritz registered to vote in October, in time to vote in the November general election. He has not voted in a Republican Party primary, which is one of the key sources of confirmation that a candidate is a member of the party in which he is running for nomination.

A box on his form was checked on the line reading: "The most recent primary election in which I voted was the primary held by the party with which I claim affiliation. . . . "

Fritz said he should have checked the next line that reads: "I have never voted in a primary election, and claim an affiliation with the party indicated above."

The [Hamilton County] Election Board, which met Friday, wouldn't allow him to file an amended declaration of his candidacy. The deadline for those filings was Feb. 23.

See also this Feb. 1, 2007 ILB entry, which begins:
The AP has a story on yesterday's Court of Appeals decision in the case of J. Bradley King and Krisi Robertson in their official Governmental capacities as Co-directors of the Indiana Election Division, et al. v. Leo T. Burns, et al:
The Indiana Court of Appeals refused to disqualify a candidate whose paperwork was filed at the wrong office before he won the election.

While there was no dispute that the form certifying Leo Burns' candidacy was filed at the Cass County clerk's office instead of the Indiana Election Division as state law requires, the mistake did not affect the outcome of the election, the three-judge panel ruled Wednesday.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 13, 2007 10:03 AM
Posted to Indiana Government