A Boatload of Impropriety

Ever since arriving in Indy, I had heard from fellow Libertarians that the inner city Marion County Democrats used a lot of dirty tricks at the polling place. I took it all with a grain of salt because I have held the belief that both the GOP and the Dems use dirty tricks. Historically, for every Democratic Boss Tweed, there was a Republican Boss Cox. I never reacted too sharply on behalf of accusers, because they lacked mirrors. Recall the Dems who could point to Florida in 2000 while ignoring their own tactic of using cigarettes to lure the homeless to the polls in Minnesota, where voters can be registered at the polls on election day.

Anyhow, I strongly doubted that much of this nonsense would transpire in an election featuring a mayor's race that was a foregone conclusion a full year before the election. Boy, was I wrong.

The polls opened at 6:00am, and I arrived at my home polling place to vote at 6:02. At 6:14, I arrived at another polling place, Trinity Episcopal Church, to serve as a poll watcher. Immediately, I found a girl distributing literature for the Democrats beyond the 'no electioneering beyond this point' sign. I advised her that she had to be on the right side of the line, to which she responded, "it's dark outside". As the sign did not read, 'no electioneering beyond this point unless it's dark outside,' I had her move, advising her that I would be outside with her if she needed to feel safe. I went inside to advise the judge, who turned out to be a Democrat. He also pointed to the darkness, and I reiterated my point. He made a snide remark about Libertarians being election day amateurs and Democrats being 'professionals'. I discovered that the Democratic precinct committeewoman was the mother of the Judge. She was also the wife of an inspector, and the mother of another paid election official. Another of her sons sat inside wearing a baseball cap promoting Democratic at-large candidate "King Ro" Conley. There was a pile of Democratic literature sitting on a chair 15 feet from the poll.

Before 6:30am, I had seen electioneering and nepotism.

I went out and stood outside with the girl to distribute literature. She mentioned being 16 years old. I asked her if it was her keen interest in politics or a day off school that had her out here. She conceded that it was a little of both. I figured she was pretty honest, so I drilled her with a battery of questions. I found out that she is not a member of the Young Democrats club, but a member of Speedway High School's Key Club, where she and about 30 others volunteered to participate in the elections. Somehow, all of them were distributing literature for the Democrats.

By 6:35, I had seen the use of child labor.

I stayed there until 8:00, leaving because turn-out was very flat, and went to Crispus Attucks Middle School. I was looking forward to going there, as it was once a high school, and home to basketball legend Oscar Robertson. He attended Crispus Attucks when Indianapolis still had segregated schools. At Crispus Attucks I saw amazing nonsense.

A very nice elderly man stood outside to distribute Democratic literature. The first hand-off of literature I observed was done while his arm was around another elderly man and as they were walking beyond the 'no electioneering beyond this point' sign. I mentioned to him that doing this was electioneering. He grinned and laughed, "I know!" I reminded him that it was illegal. He laughed again, "well, I know. I'm sorry". We had this exchange better than 10 times throughout the day.

The Republicans didn't bother to send a poll watcher to either of these polling places, but a Ward Captain did come by and observed the same thing. He made the same complaint with the same result- none. He said he was going to make a call to the Board of Elections.

I chose not to make too great a fuss since the nice old man knew about 90% of the people coming to the polls- almost all elderly black folks just like him. It was an amusing scenario. The voters would approach and I would get to them first, handing them a palm card extolling the virtues of a vote for Brad. I would say, "please consider voting for Brad Klopfenstein for City-County Council. He's endorsed. Thank you." The nice man would put his arm around the voter and confidentially ask, "now, you're going to get the job done, aren't you?" He would hand them a Democratic palm card that instructed the voter how to vote straight ticket. Occasionally, he would follow them right up to the ballot box itself. Not wanting to violate electioneering laws myself, I would scramble to remove the partisan pins I had on my shirt so that I could enter the sanctum to pull the old man out. He would laugh and apologize for "forgetting".

I went to other polling places throughout the day, and at 6:00, I was again at Crispus Attucks. The poll closed, and I removed my pins so that I could enter and observe the closing procedure. There I observed a pile of 'voided' ballots. I noticed that every one of them had a straight ticket vote for the Republicans. Some of those had the straight Republican vote as the only mark on the ballot. Others had both the Republican and Democratic straight ticket, making it a genuine void. A couple of the voids had the Democratic straight ticket and a vote for Brad, making it a genuine void, but telling me that handing them his palm card had an effect. I'm sure one of the nice old men 'helped the voter correct his mistake'.

How much of this was illegal? Probably a good portion of it. How much of it was legal but stinky? Another good portion, no doubt.

I'll say this again, though. The Democrats were well organized in the inner city. The people who worked the polls were not Abduallah supporters. I checked by asking. Many didn't even know who he was. They were purely Democratic Party people. You could have had Newt Gingrich or a hamster running for City County Council as a Democrat, and I have no doubt that the party faithful would have been there to do their jobs. Their jobs included staffing the polling places for better than $100/person, calling those who hadn't voted yet, providing rides- including cabs- to get voters to the polls.

I concluded that the LP will get nowhere in these inner city precincts without an organization to match the Democrats. Hell- the Republicans are nowhere without it. Doubt it? Here are the results of the whole 15th District:

CITY-COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 15; Precincts Reporting 42 / 42 (100.00%)

Votes / Vote%
6A PHILLIP SCHOFFSTALL (REP) 531 / 10.90%
6B P. MUUMBA ABDUALLAH (DEM) 4,080 / 83.73%
6C BRAD KLOPFENSTEIN (LIB) 262 / 5.38%

A very Democratic District! But hey, we used to get excited when our candidates got 2% in such districts, so 5.38% is pretty fine. Where did Brad's votes come from? Not Crispus Attucks. Here are the results for Precinct 7-1, at Crispus Attucks:

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL 138 / 100.00%

STRAIGHT PARTY
Votes / Vote%
REPUBLICAN PARTY (REP) 0 / 0.00%
DEMOCRATIC PARTY (DEM) 129 / 100.00%
LIBERTARIAN PARTY (LIB) 0 / 0.00%

CITY-COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 15
Votes / Vote%
6A PHILLIP SCHOFFSTALL (REP) 1 / 0.72%
6B P. MUUMBA ABDUALLAH (DEM) 136 / 98.55%
6C BRAD KLOPFENSTEIN (LIB) 1 / 0.72%

Zero straight party for the Libertarians. Zero straight party for the Republicans. 129 for the Dems. How did those two votes for Brad and the Republican get by?

Precinct 7-6 results, at Crispus Attucks:

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL 7 / 100.00%

STRAIGHT PARTY
Votes / Vote%
REPUBLICAN PARTY (REP) 1 / 20.00%
DEMOCRATIC PARTY (DEM) 4 / 80.00%
LIBERTARIAN PARTY (LIB) 0 / 0.00%

Votes / Vote%
6A PHILLIP SCHOFFSTALL (REP) 1 / 16.67%
6B P. MUUMBA ABDUALLAH (DEM) 5 / 83.33%
6C BRAD KLOPFENSTEIN (LIB) 0 / 0.00%

Tiny precinct. I can take a zero here.

Results for Precinct 12-3, also at Crispus Attucks

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL 166 / 100.00%

STRAIGHT PARTY
Votes / Vote%
REPUBLICAN PARTY (REP) 7 / 5.26%
DEMOCRATIC PARTY (DEM) 125 / 93.98%
LIBERTARIAN PARTY (LIB) 1 / 0.75%

Votes / Vote%
6A PHILLIP SCHOFFSTALL (REP) 12 / 7.50%
6B P. MUUMBA ABDUALLAH (DEM) 137 / 85.62%
6C BRAD KLOPFENSTEIN (LIB) 11 / 6.88%

This result actually makes me feel great. 11 votes for Brad isn't a lot. It isn't even enough for second place. But in a district like this, I cannot help but believe that handing out his palm cards had an effect. It further makes me question the zeros in Precinct 7-1 especially.