Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA voter who caused a disruption at a polling site on Election Day in Marion County could be charged with a Level 6 felony under a law passed earlier this year that’s meant to protect poll workers.
The Marion County Election Board is mulling whether to ask the police to investigate and Marion County Prosecutor’s Office to pursue charges based on a Nov. 5 incident that involved an unnamed man with firearms in First Friends Church, a polling location containing a preschool.
Senate Enrolled Act 170—signed into law in March—made threatening, obstructing, interfering with or injuring an election worker a Level 6 felony.
The three-member election board reviewed footage of the exchange between the man at its Dec. 12 meeting. A few dozen attendees were present as the incident played onscreen.
According to the video and election officials, the man walked into the First Friends Church at 3030 Kessler Boulevard in Indianapolis just before 10 a.m. to vote. He was wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and a black shirt featuring President-elect Donald Trump. A worker notified the man that materials supporting a specific candidate or party are forbidden in or near polling places.
The man placed the red hat on the worker’s head and “became confrontational and belligerent,” Patrick Becker, the county’s director of elections, said at the meeting. The man then removed his T-shirt, “revealing two handguns and a knife on his person,” Becker said.
The poll worker attempted to deescalate the situation and quickly escorted the man to an open voting booth. After voting, the man left the church.
An officer from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department arrived at the church at 10 a.m., but he did not file a formal police report, according to an attorney with IMPD. A document regarding the police run provided by the agency does not name the individual.
The Marion County Election Board voted in favor of giving the individual an opportunity to speak at the board’s next meeting on Jan. 21. Dan Goldblatt, a spokesman for the Marion County Clerk’s Office, confirmed that the individual was served with the notice through a process server. Goldblatt said the board’s top priority is ensuring the safety of election workers.
If the Marion County Election Board decides to pursue a complaint, it would ask police to investigate the incident and then turn over findings to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
The Prosecutor’s Office would then make a charging decision, Marisa Watson-Juárez, the office’s deputy communications director, told IBJ in an email.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
I’m a poll worker, and I find it disturbing this individual was allowed to vote, and wasn’t arrested before he could leave. Poll workers work a long day. We’re not armed. There usually is no police presence. This feels like he was looking for a confrontation. Good job by the poll worker in preventing a shooting situation, but this man should have been taken into custody and prosecuted.
So there was an officer at the scene and there was no report filed? There is the first mistake! Kudos to the poll worker for getting the man to a voting booth. When the man left the building he should have been greeted by at least one officer and placed under arrest. This incident should be investiaged and reviewed by the prosecutor’s office. I don’t understand what the question is here.