The Jennings County Election Board conducted a special meeting to review two questionable signatures requesting absentee ballots, including one involving the sheriff who is seeking re-election.
Jennings County Clerk Mary Kilgore, the secretary of the Election Board, called the public meeting Tuesday morning at the courthouse in Vernon after learning the Jennings County Absentee Board had denied two requests for absentee ballots based on questionable signatures.
“I called an emergency meeting to protect those two votes,” Kilgore, a Republican, said. “No one should lose their vote because of questionable procedures followed by someone else.”
One request for an absentee ballot had been turned into the clerk’s office by Sheriff Gary Driver, a Democrat. He signed the request as a witness who had also assisted in filling out the request for an absentee ballot.
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The Absentee Board questioned the validity of the voter’s signature on the application Driver turned in because it did not match the voter’s signatures on previous official election documents.
After reviewing examples of the voter’s usual signature during Tuesday’s special meeting, Election Board members Chuck Waggoner, a Republican, and Jeff Barer, a Democrat, accepted the signature because they knew the gentleman had recently suffered a stroke, which would account for a change in signature. Kilgore voted against accepting the signature.
After the vote Tuesday, Kilgore produced a memo from Election Deputy Brenda King that noted that at the time Driver turned in the voter’s request for a ballot, he had mentioned that the voter’s sister had actually signed the voter’s request because the voter could not sign his own name.
King’s memo also reported that Driver, who was not present at Tuesday’s special meeting, had added that he had told the sister that it was OK because at the previous Election Board meeting on April 13 it was established that it was acceptable for someone else to sign for the voter.
After hearing about what was on King’s memo, Waggoner said he wanted to change his vote and he was going to vote to reject the request Driver had turned in. Waggoner also said that members of the board should have been informed of King’s memo before the initial vote had been taken.
The request for an absentee ballot was denied Tuesday on the basis that if someone else had signed the request, there should have been a signed affidavit by Driver witnessing the approved signature.
Kilgore then requested a letter be sent to Driver telling him that it is not OK for people to sign someone’s name.
“Look, I can’t have anybody running around saying it is all right for just anyone to sign someone else’s name to a document,” Kilgore said at the special meeting.
Barer said Kilgore was making it sound like Driver had done something wrong. He referred to statements made at the April 13 Election Board meeting, which Driver had attended to discuss other issues relating to people signing for other people. Barer said several items had been read that made it sound OK if sometimes people do sign for another person.
Waggoner, an attorney, held up an Indiana Code book and said it’s important to read all of a law.
Barer said it was not right that Driver had not been invited to Tuesday’s meeting to defend himself when the Election Board knew it would discuss the application Driver submitted.
Another special Election Board meeting to address the application concerning Driver, with him present, was scheduled for Friday, but details of the meeting were past press time.
All members of the board agreed there would be another Election Board Meeting to clarify instructions for and application for an absentee vote on May 3, and Driver would be invited.
Driver said after the meeting that he had only delivered about five applications for absentee ballots and they were only for people that needed some assistance.
“I am not running around filling out a whole list of applications. These people just needed some help. I am not a criminal. I am the sheriff. I am not out there running around telling people to do criminal things. There is no reason these instructions on voting should be so confusing,” Driver said.
The sheriff said he’s beginning to wonder if the election issue is personal.
“If I thought I was wrong, I wouldn’t have signed my name and I would not have volunteered the information. I am not stupid,” he said.
Kilgore said after the meeting that as clerk she is trying to protect the integrity of the vote.
“I think I have done that. I will continue to do that until the last day I walk out the door,” Kilgore said.
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In order to vote by an absentee ballot, a voter must request permission by a signed application form to the clerk’s office, and then the ballot is sent to the voter by mail. The ballot is then returned to the clerk’s office.
As of Thursday, 256 applications for an absentee ballot had been turned in, Jennings County Election Deputy Brenda King said.
Only about 25 percent of those applications were mailed directly to her office by the voter. The rest were hand delivered by surrogates and political party workers.
It is the Election Board’s responsibility to oversee the voting process at the county level.
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