Vice President candidate Gov. Mike Pence
Is Indiana trying to suppress black vote?
Contributed By:The 411 News
Get-out-the-vote group says Pence trying to rig election in his favor
Patriot Majority USA has launched a statewide advertising campaign targeting Indiana’s black voters saying that Governor Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, is using the state police to rig the vote in his favor by attempting to suppress the black vote. The advertising is running on black-owned radio, in print and online.
Fueling Project Majority’s worries are Secretary of State Connie Lawson’s allegations of forged voter registrations, bringing Indiana into the spotlight just weeks before the Presidential Election.
In a September 15 statement Lawson said, “A group by the name of the Indiana Voter Registration Project has turned in forged voter registration applications. The group was altering already registered voter’s information. The group changed the voters address to an address not associated with the voter without the voter’s knowledge.”
Indiana Voter Registration Project is a get-out-the-vote drive aligned with the pro-Democrat political action committee Patriot Majority USA. Craig Varoga heads Patriot Majority. During this drive in Indiana, Varoga said IVRP has turned in 45,000 voter registration forms from black Hoosiers.
“The state appears to be seeking to criminalize a routine feature of voter registration drives, which inevitably involve submitting forms that contain imperfections.” Varoga said canvassers were instructed to flag forms they thought might have omissions or other problems. He said canvassers cannot choose to discard applications that appear to be incomplete or faulty; all voter forms must be submitted to state elections offices.”
And a statement this week from Doug Carter, Supt. of the Indiana State Police, said there is more than one prong in suspected voter registration tampering. “This investigation began with a concerned citizen alerting county election officials to dozens of voter application forms with grave discrepancies that indicated the possibility of fraud and forgery. Election officials called the Indiana State Police and a detective responded and determined further investigation was warranted.”
Carter is also pointing fingers at the Indiana Voter Registration Project.
After an October 4 raid by Indiana state police on the Indianapolis headquarters of IVRP, Varoga requested intervention from the U.S. Justice Dept. State police confiscated computers, cell phones, and records. Patriot Majority launched its advertising campaign last week.
Lawson said that the same complaint from residents across Indiana reached her office. Voters could not find their names on county voter registration rolls, even after having voted in this year’s primary elections.
Following up on those complaints, “We ran a report in the Statewide Voter Registration System and found thousands of dates of births and first names were changed,” said Lawson. “These records were changed on paper forms, at the BMV and online. At this time, my office is not sure why these records were changed, but we have evaluated the Statewide Voter Registration System and have found no indication it has been compromised. We believe this may be a case of voter fraud.”
This week Carter rejected allegations that Gov. Pence ordered the investigation, calling it “unconscionable” to make that suggestion.
Emily Shrock, the director of voter protection from the Indiana Democratic Party said what Lawson is calling voter fraud is actually a string of irregularities in registration.
“Actual voter fraud requires the attempt to defraud. A person would have to go to a polling location, present a false identification and vote as someone else,” she said.
“What Hoosiers are seeing in the news is not voter fraud; in fact, what we are seeing are voter registration errors in counties across the state. Sometimes there may not be errors at all but irregularities in registration names such as Bob (and) Robert. Situations that can be worked out with a simple phone call,” Shrock said.
IDP officials say they are not affiliated with the Indiana Voter Registration Project.
Carter has not released any specifics of the state police investigation that now has spread to 56 of Indiana’s 92 counties, but did say, “I have the highest level of confidence there will be county prosecutors in multiple Indiana counties who will hold a number of people criminally responsible for their actions.”
For voters who voted in the Primary Election and can no longer find themselves on Indianavoters.com, Lawson recommends them to contact their local county election officials.
Story Posted:10/23/2016
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