08122003 - News Article - EDITORIALS: Limit access to absentee ballots - The issue: Absentee ballots - ROBERT CANTRELL

EDITORIALS: Limit access to absentee ballots
The issue: Absentee ballots
NWI Times
Aug 12, 2003
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/limit-access-to-absentee-ballots/article_57e7ff67-5cac-56f8-bd01-42e9f74b840c.html
Our opinion: Sure, absentee ballots have their purpose. But make sure controls are tightened to help eliminate the potential for vote fraud.

In East Chicago, Schererville and Calumet City, elections that should have ended long ago are still in limbo because of questions over absentee ballots. The current situations must be addressed, but so must future elections.

State Rep. Chet Dobis, head of the Northwest Indiana delegation, recently called for Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter to clean up "blatant vote fraud" and, in so doing, the county's reputation statewide.

Lake County is a laughingstock because of curious things that can happen in its elections. This time, the handling of absentee ballots is at issue.

Absentee ballots gave East Chicago Mayor Robert Patrick the edge over challenger George Pabey. That one's in the courts. So is the Schererville Town Judge race, with incumbent Deborah Riga winning the primary getting 11 more votes than challenger Kenneth Anderson after absentee ballots were counted.

Across the state line, Calumet City Clerk Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush and challenger Greg Skubisz are in court after Skubisz got the edge in the general election race for the mayor's office when absentee ballots were counted.

Carter received the blessing of Lake Criminal Court Judge Thomas P. Stefaniak Jr. to empanel a special grand jury to look into absentee ballot fraud and public corruption. It's a good move.

But let's look to the future, not just the 2003 primary election.

Dobis, D-Merrillville, and state Rep. Bob Kuzman, D-Crown Point, have offered to make penalties for violating absentee ballot laws more severe. Illegally receiving an absentee ballot from a voter is a class D felony punishable by a maximum of $10,000 and three years in prison.

That penalty is already stiff. Instead of changing the penalty, lawmakers in Indiana and Illinois should look at how absentee ballots are handled to determine whether laxity in procedures contributes to the potential for vote fraud.

Sure, absentee ballots have their purpose. But make sure they aren't so freely available that they widen the potential for vote fraud.