“Regardless of what happens, I think we just need to keep our focus on making this thing work right, and the way to do that is to do it openly, transparently, get as much information as we can and talk about it,” Leone said. State law lists specific punishments for various infractions by election officials, though none correlate to improper access to ballot rooms. Ultimately, Leone and Horvath said, they plan to continue their work as normal. What effect the state police’s investigation will have on the board’s work is unclear. Horvath said he agreed with Leone’s approach and added that he’s trying to obtain security footage from the hallway leading to the ballot room to see if anyone else opened the door. “What we’re trying to do is finding out what are the best ways of approaching this issue. “Our sense is this is not a problem unique to St. Currently, the board is gathering information about best practices from other counties before moving to codify policies, Leone said. Leone, who is the new election board president following the resignation of Catherine Fanello in mid-May, and Horvath said the board is working amicably to resolve those issues. At that meeting board members also learned that the building engineer has a key to the ballot room because he needs to access an air conditioning unit and servers stored inside. The issue was brought up at a May election board meeting, where Glenn said she was given two keys to the Republican lock in March. Glenn then said she enlisted a Republican staff member and used the spare Republican key to get into the room. The discovery was made when clerks wanted to open the room to begin counting early-voting ballots, but Horvath wasn't immediately responding to calls. However, the day before the election, election board members realized there were two Republican keys to the lock. In the lead-up to the primary election in May, Horvath, the Republican key holder, and democrats opened the room on numerous occasions to begin counting early-voting ballots. Practically, the law means that both parties know when the room is opened and being accessed. I think it speaks to what we’ve discussed on the election board," Horvath said.Īccording to the statute, a room with two locks - one controlled by the Democratic Party and one controlled by the Republican Party - is supposed to be used for early voting and mail-in ballots for primary and general elections. This is the first I’m hearing of the police investigation. More: Booming crowds at Howard Park bring more police calls Joseph County Clerk’s Office.” He added that state police investigate legal, not policy, violations.īoth Leone and Horvath said they didn’t know how the investigation was initiated but both point to questions raised over the past few months over whether the county has been in compliance with state election law. Ted Bohner, a spokesman for ISP, said the investigation began in May after the Indiana Secretary of State “received a complaint concerning the St. As county clerk, Glenn is a member of the election board along with Democratic member Chuck Leone and Republican member Ben Horvath. Glenn also declined to comment on the nature of the allegations. When asked what sparked the investigation, Korpal said he did not know and has yet to meet with Glenn and police.
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