In Vigo County, GOP election dispute led to short-lived lawsuit
A disagreement between two Vigo County Republicans over who would count absentee ballots in Tuesday's general election — or at least exactly how those people would be appointed — flared into a short-lived lawsuit.
In the end, it appears a brief emergency meeting of the Vigo County Election Board on the morning of Election Day — Tuesday, Nov. 5 — both effectively shut down the legal action and averted any lengthy delay in vote counting.
The Election Board met for about 10 minutes Tuesday morning, and it approved an evenly divided roster of Republicans and Democrats to open and count early-voting ballots and to prepare them for processing by machine.
Those people got to work immediately after the 9 a.m. meeting concluded.
The meeting drew only a small audience, including Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun, City Clerk Michelle Edwards and Vigo County Commissioners Chris Switzer, Mike Morris and Mark Clinkenbeard.
The evening before the meeting, County Clerk Brad Newman, a Republican and also the secretary of the Election board, said the emergency session was called for the board to address an objection filed by Randy Gentry, chairman of the Republican Party in Vigo County.
On Tuesday morning, the board's attorney, Terry Modesitt, said the purpose of the meeting was to to "avoid disruption of the election," and he declined further comment citing his role as legal counsel to the board.
While Newman was brief in his remarks to the Tribune-Star on Tuesday morning, he was critical of Gentry, telling WTWO/WAWV that Gentry's objection was obstructionist and might push vote-counting into Wednesday and even Thursday.
As things turned out, the counting seemed to go well on a heavy-turnout Election Day. A largely complete set of numbers was published shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday and an updated unofficial final list was published about 11:36 the next morning. (All totals are unofficial until certified by the election board.)
What became clear after the election was that Gentry on Monday afternoon had filed a complaint in Vigo County Circuit Court against Newman in his capacity as county clerk.
The 2 1/2-page complaint contended Newman, as clerk and a member of the election board, had failed to comply "... with all statutory requirements concerning the counting of absentee ballots, specifically those requirements related to individuals permitted to participate in the counting of absentee ballots."
With the election completed, motions to dismiss soon followed. Newman's came on Wednesday, and Gentry filed his own motion to dismiss on Thursday. Court records available online indicate that suit was dismissed Thursday.
Gentry told the Tribune-Star via email on Thursday, "We asked for case to be dismissed today. The procedural matters and concerns were addressed at the Emergency election Board meeting on Tuesday. The Election Board responded to our satisfaction."
Election turnout was hearty, with the Wednesday morning update showing 41,360 ballots cast from an eligible pool of 70,669 registered voters, or a turnout of 58.53%.
Republicans fared very well, apparently taking every contested Vigo County race. The only ballot contest that could possibly change that clean sweep would be that for the third of three at-large seats on the County Council.
In that race, the GOP's Brenda Wilson appeared to best Democrat incumbent Marie Belzile-Theisz, 15,223 to 15,168. As of Wednesday night, Belzile-Theisz said she'd not made a firm decision on whether to request a recount.
