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Widespread problems with privacy, voting procedures at polls
Voters told to reveal ballots, inconsistencies with write-in ballots plague elections

Green Party write-in candidates have been receiving reports throughout the day of varying procedures used at different polling stations with regard to write-in votes. The three Green Party write-in candidates are Tom Brown (Mayor of South Bend), Karl Hardy (South Bend Common Council at-large), and David Vollrath (Mishawaka Common Council at-large).

Voters have reported being asked directly as to whether or not they have voted for Green Party candidates, a direct infringement on voters’ rights to privacy. Several voters have told of being asked to present their ballots to poll workers who then apparently tallied their votes on scratch paper being kept in public view. Other voters describe poll workers who appeared confused and ill informed as to how write-in votes should be treated.

“What is at stake here is citizens’ fundamental right to cast a private ballot for the registered candidate of their choice,” said Hardy. “The sanctity of our electoral process is the basis of our democracy- people’s rights have been violated and this is absolutely unacceptable. We are far from convinced that we will get a full and accurate count of all the votes for all registered candidates,”

Hardy added the Greens plan to take further action on this issue and would not rule out the possibility of demanding a recount to ensure a full and accurate counting of the vote.

In response to citizen concerns over nearly 500 uncounted votes cast for write-in candidates in the November 2006 General Election and the local candidacies of Brown, Hardy, and Vollrath, the St. Joseph County Election Board devised a mechanism that would allow for ballots containing write-in votes to be placed in a separate auxiliary bin apart from those ballots not containing a write-in votes.

This was deemed necessary because, according to the county Election Board, a specialized piece of equipment called a “diverter” is necessary to separate ballots containing write-in votes so that they can be examined and counted by hand. The Board claimed that these diverters cost $3,000 per machine and they would be needed for every voting machine in St. Joseph County. Indiana statute requires ballot boxes to be sealed until several days after elections, necessitating a mechanism for diverting write-in votes so they can be tallied by hand on election night.

The Green Party does not have ballot access in Indiana despite gathering more than 20,000 signatures statewide in a drive to have the 2006 Green Party candidate for Indiana Secretary of State, Bill Stant, placed on the ballot. Stant subsequently became a registered write-in candidate but nearly 500 write-in votes cast for him and two other write-in candidates in the November 2006 General Election were not counted in St. Joseph County as required by Indiana statute.