Indiana GOP calls on Dems to apologize over voter fraud investigation
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The chairman of the Indiana Republican Party called on his Democratic counterpart to apologize – saying the Democrat was initially dismissive of a voter fraud investigation that has now led to 12 people being charged with filing false voter application forms.
On Friday, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry announced charges against 11 canvassers and one supervisor who worked for the Indiana Voter Registration Project. Indiana State Police raided the group’s Meridian Street office last fall prior to the election after receiving initial concerns from the Hendricks County clerk that several voter registration applications contained errors and that others were turned in for people already registered to vote.
According to court records, state police later discovered thousands of applications had been turned in to respective clerks in 56 counties.
Prosecutor Curry said there is no evidence of voter fraud but that the criminal charges stem from the false voter applications that were submitted. Court records show some canvassers believed they were under pressure to sign people up to vote.
Despite that, Indiana Republican Chairman still made several references to “election fraud” and “voter fraud” when calling on Democratic chairman John Zody to apologize.
“So today I call upon Chairman Zody to first issue an immediate apology to Secretary Lawson and to Indiana State Police who recognized the problem for what it was and took immediate action to stop and investigate the problem,” said Indiana GOP chairman Kyle Hupfer.
A spokesman for the Democratic-backed Washington D.C. group behind the Indiana Voter Registration Project has previously told I-Team 8 that there were no quotas. A local attorney representing the group said the same thing.
But court records submitted by prosecutors allege that some canvassers felt they were under pressure to fill out applications and register voters.
Democratic Chairman John Zody released this statement that reads in part,
Instead of working with integrity to expand the democratic process, this third-party, out-of-state group appears to have incentivized wrong-headed behavior and then lacked the internal controls to identify the problem and put a stop to it… Our party is, and has always been committed to the highest level of transparency and vigorously ensuring our candidates volunteers and activists do the right thing and follow the law.”