Marion County’s single location for early voting provides unequal access to the ballot, argues a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Common Cause and the NAACP. Plaintiffs in the case allege Indianapolis’ sole early-voting precinct is discriminatory and constitutes voter suppression. The lawsuit takes aim at the system in which one of the three unelected members of the Marion County Election Board, most recently Republican Party member Maura Hoff, has vetoed multiple early-voting locations in the state’s most populous county. The result has been sometimes-long lines at the only location for early voting, the Marion County Clerk’s office in the Indianapolis City-County Building.
“Since 2010, partisan politics has meant less access to early voting in Marion County than in other counties across the state,” Common Cause policy director Julia Vaughn said.
Vaughn and other plaintiffs spoke at a news conference outside the City-County Building Tuesday while announcing the suit.
“The Indiana NAACP is proud to stand here today to announce this challenge because this statute is harming all voters in Marion County but having a particularly pernicious effect on voters of color,” said Indiana NAACP President Barbara Bolling Williams. “It’s shameful that the largest county in our state only has one early voting site.”
Full Article: Common Cause, NAACP sue over Marion County early-voting site | 2017-05-02 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com.