"Dead Lake residents cast 2003 ballots." That is the headline to this lengthy story today in the Munster Times. I am as shocked as this lady:
"I'm stunned," said Sally LaSota, director of the Lake County Board of Elections and Registration. "I can't imagine someone going in there and voting these people." * * *Posted by Marcia Oddi at May 16, 2004 06:30 PMA monthlong Times analysis of voting records and Social Security death records found thousands of registered voters who remain on the rolls despite their deaths. Cross-referencing the two computer databases revealed the names of 51 people with the same name and birth date who voted postmortem. Further examination ruled out dozens of errors but confirmed at least five dead votes, only one of which could be explained. * * *
[Cam Savage, spokesman for the Secretary of State's office] estimated that all voter lists in Indiana are inflated by about 20 percent, and LaSota has said there are probably 50,000 names in Lake County's database of nearly 370,000 that should be purged. The county rolls even include 85 people listed as born in the 1800s. That's plenty of opportunities for someone to pose as a moved or deceased voter.
Absentee votes present a special challenge, Savage said, because ballots can be requested and returned through the mail without face-to-face contact with neighborhood poll workers.
The Indiana Supreme Court currently is considering George Pabey's absentee-based challenge of last year's East Chicago mayoral primary against Robert Pastrick. In the disputed election, Pastrick lost at the polls by 199 votes, but won the election after absentee ballots gave him a 278-vote margin. LaPorte County Superior Court Judge Steven King in August called the election "a textbook example of chicanery" and threw out 155 votes, leaving Pastrick with a 123-vote majority. * * *
State Rep. John Aguilera, D-East Chicago, said corrupt political operatives in the county are usually too careful to use dead voters. Instead, they prey on indigent or elderly voters or they use nonresident voters -- all of which are more difficult to catch than ghost voters.
Merrillville resident Samuel Minton said the thing that bothered him most was that his late wife Cynthia didn't visit him when she voted. He said he can joke about it now because six years have passed since her death. "She voted from heaven if it's the same Cynthia," Minton said. "She came down and voted and didn't even stop in to say hello."