Monroe County Circuit Court Special Judge Luke Rudisill rejected a lawsuit filed by Joe Davis, an independent Bloomington mayoral candidate, challenging the disqualifications of signatures he collected to appear on the November general election ballot Oct. 5.
In July, the Monroe County Election Board rejected Davis’s request that the board re-evaluate more than 200 disqualified signatures that he had collected to appear on the November ballot. The disqualified signatures meant he was 14 signatures short of the 352 required by state law to appear on the ballot. Many of these signatures were disqualified because they were signed by residents whose voter registration was still pending.
Indiana code states a pending voter is an individual who recently registered to vote or updated their registration and must wait seven days for their registration to be approved.
Davis said during the July Monroe County Election Board meeting that rejecting these signatures disenfranchises voters, including some who had listed their addresses at the Shalom Community Center, a day shelter and resource center in Bloomington. Davis said during this meeting he helped unregistered residents fill out voter registration applications.
Davis filed the lawsuit in August, several weeks after the board voted unanimously to reject his request for re-evaluation. Davis filed the lawsuit against Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales, the Indiana Election Division and the Monroe County Voter Registration Office, according to court documents.
In the suit, Davis claimed he was deprived of ballot access, violating his state and federal constitutional rights. He also argued that the Indiana Code that enforces the seven-day waiting period for pending voters is unduly burdensome and unconstitutional.
However, Rudisill said in his decision that Davis's argument failed.
“The state has a legitimate interest in protecting the integrity of elections, which includes verifying voter registration applications. The statute is not discriminatory, and it is rationally related to the State’s interest in protecting the integrity of election,” Rudisill said in the ruling. “Moreover, Plaintiff was not deprived of the right to vote via this process, so he lacks standing to make a constitutional claim other than insofar as his rights were deprived.”
Rudisill also stated he believed Davis did not understand the voter registration and verification process and that it was his own oversight that led to his failed petition for nomination.
Democratic mayoral nominee Kerry Thomson will be the only candidate to appear on the November ballot.
