County probes student ballot requests

The Monroe County Clerk's office said it will contact 200 IU fraternity and sorority members this week to question them about mail-in ballot applications they submitted for the upcoming election.\nMembers of Acacia, Phi Gamma Delta, Alpha Chi Omega, Chi Phi and Delta Gamma claimed on their applications that they are working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on election day and will be unable to go to the polls. Mail-in ballots would allow them to send in their vote rather than traveling to the election site.\nCounty Clerk Jim Fielder said he will ask students if they really plan to work for the entire 12 hours the polls are open.\n"I can't say 'these kids aren't going to be working 12 hours,' but with 216 coming from the same houses, I can understand where people might be suspicious," Fielder said.\nFielder's phone calls to those some of those students will be the last effort the county makes to determine if the applications are legitimate. All mail-in ballots will be sent out at the end of the week.\n"We have done almost all we can," Fielder said. "We are obligated to go ahead and mail the ballots."\nMonroe County Democratic Chairman Dan Combs said his party will formally challenge the 216 ballots. A challenge would lead to a recount of the votes, delaying the election results. A judge would appoint a three-member recount commission that would investigate whether the students who voted by mail worked during the day or not. \nIf the commission finds that students in fact did not work like they said they would, then the students could be prosecuted for perjury. \n"No one believes the 216 members are going to be working for 12 hours or more," Combs said. "If that's true, then there are a lot of misconceptions about college life."\nThe Monroe County election laws state that anyone who wants to vote absentee can come to the Justice Building and do so without a reason. But the law puts limits on who can vote by mail.\nMail-in ballots are granted to disabled and military voters, to voters over the age of 65, to election officials who work outside their precinct, to voters who expect to be absent from the county on election day, and to voters who are scheduled to work at their regular place of employment during the entire 12 hours the polls are open. \nFielder said he worries students were misled and didn't know they were breaking the law.\n"I'm afraid the students didn't know what they signed," Fielder said. "Someone may have said, 'Hey if you sign this form, you don't even have to show up.'" \nMarty Stevens, president of the Monroe County Republicans, said he has asked the county election board to investigate the applications. \nAt Chi Phi, members of the Republican Party distributed mail-in applications and encouraged members of the house to sign them, said Chi Phi President Jeremiah White. \nWhite said members of the house were eager to sign the applications so they could vote without going to the polls. He said not all the fraternity members who filled out the forms were Republican. \n"My day is a full day, so I appreciate that I can send something in," White said. \nWhite said none of the brothers knowingly broke the law. He said he thinks the Republicans misled the fraternity.\n"I have a hard time believing if they are promoting this, that they don't know it's illegal," White said. "You would assume they would know what they are doing."\nInterfraternity Council President Evan Waldman said he is encouraging fraternity and sorority presidents to find out who orchestrated the application drive.\n"There is something less than legitimate going on here being that there are 216 fraternity and sorority members who have signed their name to the fact that they work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.," Waldman said. "If this is true, I applaud them for being 216 of the earliest risers on campus."\nCollege Republicans President Angel Rivera said the student group conducted voter registration drives in the county's third district. The fraternities and sororities under investigation are located in the sixth district.\nHe said student coordinators in the individual fraternities and sororities registered members, and local Republican politicians also visited.\n"The Democrats have a problem because Republicans reached out to students and now they are trying to solve their lack of support by raising invalid questions," Rivera said. \nThe Democrats aren't out to stop students from voting, Combs said.\n"When someone tampers with the process, we're not going to let it go," Combs said.\nCombs said it's possible that the students unintentionally violated the election laws. \n"It really looks like the students were taken advantage of," Combs said. "It looks like one person thought he found an easy way to pick up votes."\nHe said voting is a responsibility to be taken seriously.\n"It's not a game; it's not something you do for pizza," Combs said. \nFielder said two of the 216 students came into the clerk's office last week and said they didn't intend to create any problems. The two voted absentee in person.\nFielder said he hopes other students will respond to his phone calls in the same way.\n-- Contact senior writer Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.