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Friday, December 23, 2011

Ind. Decisions - More on "Judge says White ineligible to serve as Secretary of State"

Updating yesterday's ILB entry, this morning Charlie White's newly hired attorney, Jonathan P. Sturgill, filed this 3-page motion "to stay proceedings of the Indiana Recount Commission and enforcement of Opinion and Judgment entered Dec. 21, 2011."

Judge Rosenberg's notice in response:

On December 22, 2011, this Court entered judgment in this cause, ordering the Indiana Recount Commission to declare Respondent Charlie White ineligible to hold the office of Secretary of State and to certify the election of Vop Osili. On December 23, 2011, White filed a Notice of Appeal and a Motion for Stay Pending Appeal.

The Motion for Stay is set for hearing on December 29,2011 at 9:30 A.M. The Court stays all proceedings, as well as enforcement of its Judgment, until the Motion for Stay is disposed of.

Eric Bradner of the Evansville Courier Press has just posted a must-read story that gets to the heart of the issues. It begins:
INDIANAPOLIS — For many of the parties with a close eye on Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White’s legal battle for his political life, it’s not about the officeholder himself. It’s about who would replace him if he is removed from office.

On Thursday, a Marion County judge overturned an Indiana Recount Commission decision and ruled that White was not legally registered to vote. Thus, the judge said, he did not meet the requirements to be on the ballot, and the second-place finisher should take his place.

An attorney for White filed in Marion County for an emergency stay of that ruling, and a judge has frozen the case until a hearing set for Dec. 29 on whether to grant that stay.

Meanwhile, in five weeks, a jury in Hamilton County is set to start considering the criminal case against White, against whom special prosecutors are levying seven felony charges, including voter fraud. If he is convicted of just one of those, he would be booted out of office.

There is one key difference between the two procedures: If he wasn’t qualified for the ballot, a Democrat would take his place; if he is ejected from office because of a felony conviction, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels would choose his replacement.

“Ultimately, the civil versus the criminal has been who replaces Charlie White when he’s out of office,” said Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker, who is pursuing the civil case against White. “We didn’t write that law. The Legislature wrote that law.”

It’s a law the Indiana General Assembly actually changed during its 2011 session. If such a situation occurs in the future, instead of a second-place finisher getting the office, the governor would appoint the replacement.

But that change was not retroactive, which means Democrats still have hopes of gaining the secretary of state’s office.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 23, 2011 01:00 PM
Posted to Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions