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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Ind. Courts - "Voters clamor to cast ballots after 4 p.m. deadline"
A ruling in the "early voting" case is expected later today, but meanwhile Bill Dolan of the NWI Times reported last evening from one of the satellite sites in dispute:
GARY | Large numbers of voters lining the hallways of the Gary courthouse wishing to vote early in the general election raised protests Tuesday when election workers attempted to close their doors at 4 p.m.Lauren Smith, a spokeswomen for the Indiana Democratic Party, blamed Republican officials were unfairly turning back voters.
Nicholas Gasparovic, assistant county elections board director and the board's ranking Republican, said, he was preparing to call police to quell the angry crowd, who he said were violating the normal rules of closing the polls.
The dispute was the latest controversy over early in-person voting, which Gasparovic said has been heavy in the Gary office Tuesday.
The GOP has been trying to curtail satellite voting centers outside of Crown Point, claiming they violate state election laws which requires bipartisan support. They claim multiple centers risk voter
Democrats claim state law allows early voting in county clerk's branch offices in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago and they provide equal access to early voting to minorities, many of whom have neither the time nor transportation to reach the Crown Point voting center.
A spokeswoman for the Indiana Supreme Court said Lake Superior Court Judge Diane Kavadias-Schneider hadn't issued a ruling late this afternoon, but may still do so today or early Wednesday.
Gasparovic said election officials have regularly been closing early voting centers at 4 p.m. and are following Election Day rules that persons must be standing within a 50-foot chute extending outside the polling place to be eligible to vote once the deadline passes.
Smith said Election Day rules shouldn't apply to early voting.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 22, 2008 09:11 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts