St. Joseph County Democrats today (on Thursday) filed an emergency motion asking a judge to stop election officials from doing anything more with ballots for the Nov. 3 elections until their dispute with Republicans can be ruled upon.
County Democratic Party Chair Don Westerhausen says county election officials Thursday night loaded ballots onto voting machines. He wants all further scheduled election actions paused because those loaded ballots omitted four Democratic candidates.
The Republican-majority county Election Board says the candidates failed to file candidacy forms after Westerhausen had picked them to fill ballot vacancies. The candidates say Republican Clerk Amy Rolfes’ staff told them their paperwork was complete.
They’ve since filed the forms but Republicans still say they can’t be on the ballot because no vacancies existed for Westerhausen to fill, since the four individuals had never been candidates since they’d failed to file the candidate forms.
Rolfes declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Westerhausen says Republicans are ignoring the lawsuit, and the first judge assigned the case, Mark Telloyan, recused himself because he formerly served as a Republican election board member. So they’re asking Judge Jenny Pitts-Manier to quickly hear the case and order an injunction against the board.
Indiana law requires ballots to be printed by Monday and mailed by Sept. 19, a week from Friday. Early voting starts Oct. 6.
