Elections & Politics

Tippecanoe County voters who want to cast their ballots early for the May 8th primary now have another satellite location to do so.

Board of Elections and Registration co-chair Jared Bond says the Pay Less Super Market on Maple Point Drive near the Tippecanoe Mall has been added to the list of early voting sites, bringing the total number to ten.

He says the location of the vote centers on Primary Election Day remain the same as last time, with one exception.

U.S. Senator Dick Lugar will re-register to vote after his right to vote in Indiana’s primary was denied by the Marion County election board.  The decision was part of a legal agreement that kept the issue from being decided in court.

The Marion County Election board ruled a couple weeks ago that Senator Lugar and his wife were no longer eligible to vote using the address of their Indianapolis home as proof of residency. The couple sold the home in 1977, after Lugar was first elected to the Senate.

A panel discussion at Purdue examined how social media is transforming the presidential campaign.

Executives from Twitter, Google and C-SPAN highlighted the event, which took comments and questions via social media.

Google is documenting the digital campaign trail at a dedicated website. Jonathan Perelman is global lead in industry relations for the company. He says there’s a stark difference between 2008 and this year’s race when it comes to social media.

Indiana’s Governor will be allowed to hand pick the new Secretary of State.

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that former Secretary of State Charlie White was eligible to run for the position even though he listed an improper address on his voter registration form.

Democrats argued runner up in the 2010 election, Vop Osili, be slated as the new Secretary of State.

In December, a Marion County judged ruled that should be the case.

But, Thursday's decision overturned that ruling.

White was convicted of six felony charges related to the issue.

The Indiana Election Commission ruled Friday that Republican gubernatorial hopeful Jim Wallace will not be on the ballot in the primary. 

To be on the primary ballot for governor in Indiana, a candidate must have 500 certified signatures from each congressional district.  Businessman Jim Wallace only had 486 signatures affirmed in Marion County.  But Wallace argued that Marion County’s system was flawed and failed to certify signatures that were valid.  Election Commission chairman Dan Dumezich says Wallace didn’t do enough to prove that.