Governor vetoes voting center bill, cites election fraud concerns
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 05/20/2009
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A recent election bill was vetoed by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels because of his concerns over voter fraud.
The bill, which dealt primarily with voting centers and provisional ballots, was passed narrowly in the House and Senate. In vetoing the bill, the governor cited election fraud as his primary concern.
According to Tippecanoe County Clerk Linda Philips, the original Senate bill would have allowed Secretary of State Todd Rokita to designate Johnson County as one of four vote center counties because more than 400 of its voting machines were destroyed in a flood. It has been estimated that this switch could save the county as much as $2 million, as the county would need to replace fewer machines. However, legislators added a number of extra provisions, including one allowing all counties to establish satellite absentee vote centers by a majority vote.
Satellite absentee voting centers can be set up by any county, but require unanimous approval by a county election board, which is made up of a Republican, a Democrat and the county clerk. Clerks can be Republican, Democratic or independent, meaning that the board will almost always be dominated by one of the two main political parties.
In Tippecanoe, for example, there is a Republican majority. Since the election board chooses the locations for both satellite absentee voting centers and Election Day vote centers, a majority vote could give rise to voter fraud.
“Right now, if it was just a majority vote ... we could decide just to locate boards in Republican areas,” said Philips, a Republican and member of the election board. “The Democrats couldn’t do a darn thing about it. ... It protects the rights of the minority.”
State Rep. Sheila Klinker, D-Lafayette, disagrees.
“We want fairness in the system,” she said. “I think it’s very necessary to have fairness in the system. But I thought we did, frankly. I was shocked at the governor’s veto.”