E.C. plan under scrutiny by feds

Aug. 18, 2004

By Steve Walsh / Post-Tribune

CROWN POINT — U.S. Justice Department election monitors grilled Lake County election officials behind closed doors about their plan to comply with federal election law at the polls in East Chicago.

That meeting followed the Election Board meeting Tuesday, where two federal agents from the U.S. Justice Department Civil Rights Division sat in the audience.

They were among the agents who fanned out in East Chicago to document problems at the polling places during the May primary. Lake County is under a federal court order — stemming from the corruption-ridden 2003 mayoral primary — to provide better access, especially for minority voters and those with limited English skills.

After the public meeting, the agents met with members of the Election Board and its attorneys. Justice Department officials remained tight-lipped about the discussion, which their office requested.

In a previously released June 4 letter to the Election Board, the Civil Rights Division cited problems found at East Chicago polling places May 4. Among the findings, the federal monitors identified at least one of the translators required under a court order did not speak Spanish; another spoke only limited Spanish.

Justice Department officials were critical of the training poll workers received in the provisions of the Help America Vote Act, including how to respond to requests for provisional ballots.

Justice Department agents referred questions to the office in Washington, D.C.

“We are still in the process of talking with the Election Board,” department spokesman Eric Holland said.

After a July Election Board meeting where board members questioned the Justice Department’s findings, Election Board attorney James Wieser drafted a reply letter. He said the federal agents wrote back, setting a deadline of Sept. 13 for the county to submit a plan to correct problems found at the polls.

Asked to produced copies of the back and forth correspondence, Wieser said the Voters Registration office should have a copy. The Post-Tribune filed an official request for the correspondence with the office; officials there forwarded the request back to Wieser, who did not return repeated phone calls throughout the afternoon.

The Voter Registration office did release a three-page “supplemental training plan” for poll workers. That plan includes having the county work with the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office to conduct a training session on Sept. 23, to prepare poll workers for the general election.

“The staff will invite the poll officials who worked in the May 2004 primary election to attend the session,” the plan states.

Unlike previous elections, all polling place workers will be required to attend at least one training session, according to the plan.

In the plan, the board also pledges to require translators to show they speak Spanish well enough to interpret instructions given in English on the voting machines.

Before meeting with the Justice Department officials, Wieser said Lake County election officials planned to review a copy of the draft plan with the agents.

U.S. District Court Allen Sharp’s April ruling requiring translators at the polls in East Chicago was the result of a lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which cited fraudulent voting problems in the city’s 2003 mayoral primary.

The state Supreme Court recently ordered a new primary election, citing widespread fraud and abuse where election workers often targeted voters with limited English skills.