Oct 14, 2008 6:12 pm US/Central
Early Voting Begins In N.W. Indiana
Superior Court Judges Says He Won't Intervene
GARY, Ind. (CBS) ―
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Voting in Hammond, Ind., during this year's primary elections. (File)
CBS
Early voting centers have opened in largely Democratic Gary, Hammond and East Chicago. But Indiana Republicans now plan to take their early voting challenge to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Both Democratic and Republican leaders have been battling this issue on different levels of the court system.
A circuit court judge ordered the sites to open Tuesday morning. Later CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones met with the Superior Court judge who'd originally barred these sites from opening. He told CBS 2 now that people are voting he won't fight that.
Superior Court Judge Calvin Hawkins said he would not intervene following an earlier lower court ruling ordering polling locations be opened Tuesday morning in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.
"It is not the intent of this court to disenfranchise voters,'' Hawkins told CBS 2. "We want every vote counted."
Voting had already started before Hawkins held a hearing on the issue Tuesday afternoon. The voting stations are located at: 15 W. 4th Ave., Gary; 232 Russell St., Hammond; and 3711 Main St., East Chicago, sometime after 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Hawkins did set conditions for voting officials. He ordered that the Lake County elections board transcribe all meetings on the issue and notify all interested parties of future meetings.
Even without official notice voters are taking advantage of the early voting.
"I would normally vote on Election Day, but today it was on principal," said voter Vera Mileusnic.
She's a local radio show host who was first in line when early voting started at the courthouse in East Chicago, just one of many voters who wanted to make sure they weren't left out of the process.
The location opened while an argument over whether it should be there was being hashed out in the same building. The chair of the Democratic Party in Lake County says the motive behind GOP pressure against voting places like this one is clear.
"You know, it's amazing we're even going through all of this. I mean Stevie Wonder can see what's going on," Rudy Clay said. "What we've got going is they're trying to stop the vote in Gary because we've got 97 percent Barack Obama and this is a battleground state."
Voters in East Chicago, in Hammond and in Gary are mostly minority, and mostly Democrat.
Attorneys representing the Lake County Republican Party, which opposes opening the early voting sites in the three Democratic strongholds, announced Tuesday morning they would file a motion asking the Indiana Supreme Court to consider a request to dismiss the case.
The early voting issue has drawn national attention, with the GOP contending the process is ripe for voter fraud. Operatives pointed to problems with several voter applications filed by the liberal advocacy group ACORN.
Opening early voting will likely be a huge lift to the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama. Northwest Indiana would deliver big numbers for the Democrat in a state that largely leans Republican.
"People here are energized, they're focused, they are involved and there are reasons now to squash that," said voter the Rev. Dwight Gardner.
Timothy Cobbs, a disabled Vietnam veteran energized for the election, said, "I haven't been getting the proper care that I should be getting so maybe if there's a change of guard, I might get the proper care."
It's his first time voting and because of his wounds, waiting in long lines on Election Day or outside of Gary would be a problem. He values voting early and close to home.
Early voting closes November 3.
CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones contributed to this report.
(CBS 2 and the Post-Tribune are news partners covering stories in the communities of northwest Indiana. Send story tips to tips@cbs2chicago.com. (© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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