Voter Suppression Battle In Northwest Indiana

It appears that Lake County, IN may be the latest arena in the GOP's effort to suppress the vote in swing states.

First some basics. Under Indiana election law, early voting can only take place in a county clerk's main office. This clearly could be problematic in areas where the county seat is far in distance from the most heavily populated parts of the county. Therefore, the law gives each board of elections the authority to approve early voting centers elsewhere in their county.

Lake County's geography provides the perfect argument for these "satellite" polling places. The county seat, Crown Point, is the 7th most populous city in the county (pop. 24,000) and centrally located. Meanwhile, three of the four biggest municipalities -- Gary (pop. 96,000), Hammond (pop. 77,000), and East Chicago (pop. 30,000) are all located at the northern edge of the county, along Lake Michigan. Together, these towns hold more than 40 percent of the county's residents. Moreover, Gary and Hammond are the fifth and sixth largest cities in the state.

It's in the city clerk's offices in these three towns that the Democratic members of the Lake County Board of Elections wanted to open up satellite voting centers. After all, it's about an hour roundtrip drive to Crown Point from any of them.

But on September 24, the two Republican members of the elections board voted against doing so. Their explanation is that Lake County Democratic chairman Rudy Clay made an agreement early in the year with GOP chairman John Corley to allow satellite voting during the state's presidential primary, but not during the general election.

Why wouldn't the Republicans want residents of these three cities to have easier access to early voting in the weeks leading up to this historic election? Because they're heavily minority, heavily low-income, and heavily Democratic.

Following the 3-2 party-line vote, the board of elections proceeded with its plan to open up the voting centers. Meanwhile, the county Republican Party argued that state law requires each board to unanimously approve any satellite voting and pledged to mount a legal challenge. The Democrats countered that voting centers located in city clerk's offices -- which are part of the county government -- don't fall under the statute cited by the GOP. This is where things get murky. From the Post-Tribune:

At the center of the argument is a 1993 state law creating the combined Lake County Election and Voter Registration Board, a five-member body which now administers elections in the county.

The county clerk is in charge of elections in 91 of the state's 92 counties.

Not in Lake County, though.

According to Republican Election Board attorney Bruce Lambka, satellite voting offices can be set up without a vote in county clerk's offices only in counties where the clerk is in charge of elections.

"In one county, incidentally this one, we vote in the Office of Elections and Registration," Lambka said.

Representatives of Secretary of State Todd Rokita declined to offer an interpretation of the law.

Rokita, by the way, is a Republican.

The GOP's legal challenge has made its way to federal court, where Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen scheduled a hearing for next Thursday and convinced the Democrats not to being early voting at the three locations until he ruled on the injunction filed by the Republicans.

After the recent evidence of voter suppression in Michigan, you can be sure more attention will be paid to this issue in the coming week, perhaps even at the national level. The hearing will ultimately focus on competing interpretations of state election law and the GOP leaders will tell the press that their actions are driven by legal considerations, not political ones. But it's important to remember the critical moment in this whole process: when the two Republican members of the board voted against the additional voting centers, each located in heavily-populated, minority-rich areas. That tells you all you need to know about their motivations.

Here's the latest info on the early voting dispute in Lake County, IN.

As I already reported, a circuit court judge ruled this morning that the Lake County, IN board of elections could commence early voting at three satellite polling places located in the Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago city clerk offices. The ruling opened up the possibility that the board might open these early voting centers as soon as tomorrow, despite telling District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen last Friday that they would wait until he had ruled on a temporary restraining order filed by the local Republican Party to block early voting in the three minority-rich, Democratic cities.

Now comes news that the Lake County board of elections has informed the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that they don't plan to begin early voting until at least Thursday, depending on Van Bokkelen's ruling (he's scheduled to take up the case this Thursday).

The plaintiffs in the circuit court case, along with SEIU, are planning a press conference tomorrow. But it's unclear at the moment what their next move is. On the one hand, they could simply wait for the district court hearing later this week. Another possibility: they could file yet another lawsuit in circuit court, this one directed at the Democratic-led board of elections.

More to come ...

UPDATE (6 pm): I'm hearing that the federal court has moved their hearing up from Thursday to tomorrow morning. So what could happen? Judge Van Bokkelen will either grant the GOP's temporary restraining order (thereby blocking the satellite polling places from opening), throw it out, or remand the case to the circuit court (where it apparently should have been in the first place).

Josh Kalven blogs for Progress Illinois, which provides online news and commentary on issues important to Illinois working families and the progressive movement at large. Progress Illinois is sponsored by the SEIU Illinois State Council.

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