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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Ind. Decisions - More on status of remote voting sites at issue in Lake County

Updating this ILB entry from late yesterday afternoon, Bill Dolan has updated his story in the NWI Times:

Monday's federal court ruling may set the stage for dueling state court decisions.

Lake County Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins has scheduled a new hearing on the matter for 1 p.m. today in his East Chicago courtroom to decide the next step. Last week, Hawkins blocked the satellite centers from opening after county Republicans sought a restraining order.

Lake County Circuit Court Judge Lorenzo Arredondo will have a separate hearing on the issue at 9 a.m. in his courtroom. Last week, Arredondo ordered the satellite centers to open.

Lawyers for Democratic elections board members -- who advocate the early voting sites -- said last week they were prepared to take any conflicting state court orders to the Indiana Supreme Court for a quick final ruling on the matter.

Republican County Chairman John Curley said he is prepared to put the case in Hawkins' hands. He said he hoped Judge Arredondo would not overrule Hawkins without giving Republicans a chance to present their case.

Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, who also is the Lake County Democratic chairman, considered the ruling an apparent defeat Monday for his efforts to open early voting in the county's largest cities and vowed to organize an armada of buses and cars to move north county voters to the county elections board office in Crown Point. The offices is the only early voting location that remains open.

John Byrne reports today in the Gary Post-Tribune:
It's back to the state courts for the increasingly Byzantine legal fight over early voting sites in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen decided Monday he has no jurisdiction to settle the partisan bickering about whether to allow satellite vote centers in the three cities.

Van Bokkelen remanded the case to Lake Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins, who ruled Oct. 3 on behalf of Republicans by temporarily stopping early voting in the Democratic strongholds.

But before the parties appear in front of Hawkins at 1 p.m. today, another group of plaintiffs will take their case in favor of opening the satellites to Lake County Circuit Judge Lorenzo Arredondo.

Arredondo has ruled once in favor of the Democrats, ordering Oct. 6 that the Gary, Hammond and East Chicago polling places be opened immediately.

Plaintiffs in the Circuit Court case, including the Indiana NAACP and several trade unions, will now ask Arredondo to issue a permanent order to open the offices.

The Election Board intends to act immediately based on Arrendondo's ruling today, according to Lake County Clerk Thomas Philpot.

This sets up the possibility of the satellite voting offices being open before the case even gets to Hawkins if Arredondo rules in favor of the Democrats.

Because of the dueling court cases, state NAACP President Barbara Bolling said she wouldn't be surprised if the issue ends up in the Indiana Supreme Court.

Any legal delay will, in effect, disenfranchise north Lake County voters, according to county Democratic Chairman Rudy Clay, who favors opening the northern voting offices.

"This is like a tennis ball bouncing back and forth, but meanwhile time marches on," Clay said. "We need to make sure voters know they can cast early ballots right now in Crown Point, and take advantage of it."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 14, 2008 08:10 AM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions