Report: School board member bought meals for voters

GARY -- A school board member faces criticism for using $422 in school money to buy meals for teenage voters on the day they cast absentee ballots in primary races that included the district in which he was seeking re-election.\nTwo state officials question whether Michael Scott might have used the taxpayer funds to influence political votes by buying the meals at a Ponderosa restaurant.\nScott has characterized the lunches as part of a Lew Wallace High School field trip during which the teens were taken to the Lake County Government Center to cast ballots for the May primary.\nOnly students in the district where he was running for re-election got the lunches.\n"It raises red flags" said Bruce Hartman, state examiner for the Indiana State Board of Accounts. "The political insinuations are enough to say, 'Wait a minute. Is this a way that someone was influencing students to vote for them in the election?'"\nScott originally paid cash for the lunches and then requested reimbursement from district funds. On June 28, he received a school check for $422.36 records show.\nReceipts show he treated 25 Lew Wallace High School students on April 25 and 36 students on April 26 to the meals during special voting days in advance of the primary.\nWhen asked about the trip last spring, Scott said he had asked Lew Wallace administrators to coordinate the trip but had no further involvement.\n"I would not use kids in that way," Scott said at that time.\nThe Post-Tribune of Merrillville said Scott agreed last week to an interview but later backed out.\nScott did not immediately return a phone message left Monday by The Associated Press.\nLast April, Scott said his son, then the Wallace student council president, came up with the idea for the trip so students could have their first voting experience.