Voter fraud and the media blackout

I’m elated, but so disappointed.

On March 3, Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White was indicted on seven felony charges involving voter fraud.

I was elated to hear the news because I’ve known about the nature of the charges since the controversy began to brew in September.

But I’m so very disappointed it took this long for there to be some decent media coverage.

Back in October, Greg Purvis, an attorney in Fishers, Ind., called for a special prosecutor and grand jury to investigate White, who was previously a member of the Fishers Town Council.

White had moved outside the district for the seat he held on the council.

Rather than forfeiting the seat and the salary with it, White has been accused of keeping both by neglecting to update his voter registration to match his new address.
Well, he hasn’t simply been accused. He’s actually admitted to doing this.

In September, White resigned from his position on the council, citing the fact that he had technically been disqualified from holding the seat since moving outside the district in February.

It either took White seven months to realize he had moved, or he had decided to hang on to the seat for just a little while longer.

Regardless of his motive, White was committing the felonious act of voter fraud, not to mention the theft of more than $7,000 given to him for those seven months of serving on the council.

Unfortunately, our secretary of state’s criminal actions did not stop there.
Purvis accused White of changing his voter registration not to reflect his new residency outside the district, but rather to his ex-wife’s house inside the district.
This too is illegal, as it is a felony to list incorrect information on your voter registration.

I should mention that once again, White does not disagree with the accusations.

Instead, White takes offense to the idea that he had illegally registered himself as living at his ex-wife’s house for the purpose of retaining his seat on the town council.
He simply said, “I made a couple silly mistakes. I’ll learn from it.”

He must have been learning at a breakneck speed since September because in January he was inaugurated as secretary of state and is now the chief Indiana official overseeing Indiana’s voting laws and elections.

It really is a shame, because unless a lawsuit by the Indiana Democratic party holds up, Gov. Mitch Daniels will appoint White’s successor.

The Indiana Democratic party has sued, claiming that Mr. White was ineligible to run because his residency was incorrectly listed.

They would like to see him disqualified from the election and removed from office.
Had voters truly understood the gravity and nature of the controversy surrounding White, that lawsuit could have been avoided and White’s opponent Vop Osili could be
secretary of state right now.

Then perhaps Indiana would not look so foolish having elected a felon to office with roughly 57 percent of the vote.

Osili barely mentioned the voter fraud issue at all during the campaign.

If he was afraid to go too negative, I say to all politicians: Negativity isn’t wrong if what you’re saying is true.

Or perhaps because the charges involved a felony, Osili was afraid to be sued for defamation.

We all know that guilt hasn’t stopped some people from threatening lawsuits.
A third possible reason is that Osili may have been waiting for the media to pick up the slack and do the reporting for him.

After all, the free press is supposed to be there to defend truth and justice when people attempt to cover up or mislead the public.

Unfortunately, this far too often is not the case.

The only thing worse than misreporting is not reporting, especially within a democracy.
When the victims of ignorance are voters, we all become victims of their votes.
As we’ve seen with the charges against White, complacency and silly mistakes are not excuses for breaking the law.

We should not let the press’s complacency prevent us from informing ourselves of what goes on in the world or from electing those candidates who have our best interests in mind.


E-mail: cdbabcoc@indiana.edu