Comments on Advance Indiana™: Supreme Court Confirms Bennett's Election As Terre Haute Mayor

If the challenge is made timely, a candidate alrea...

2009-06-17T06:38:46.017-05:00

If the challenge is made timely, a candidate already on the ballot or aleady nominated in the primary can be disqualified from the general election ballot if I'm reading the court's decision correctly.

Just a friendly reminder that candidate challenges...

2009-06-17T05:43:36.672-05:00

Just a friendly reminder that candidate challenges should be filed as soon as possible. It takes several weeks for the ballot to be programmed, proofed and then printed, so, unfortunately, the election board can't take a name off the ballot at the last minute. They have to submit the candidate list to the programmers as soon as the deadline for candidate challenges closes. After that point, a judicial decision disqualifing a candidate would be next to impossible to translate to the ballot - that is not without the county having to pay a hefty fee to the vendor for last minute programming changes and the possibility that ballots will have to be reprinted, which would be a great expense.

Again, just a friendly reminder

I think the Court recognized that this was a real ...

2009-06-17T05:31:47.150-05:00

I think the Court recognized that this was a real can of worms, better left unopened. The sheer number of lawsuits that would have been filed (mainly on Democratic office holders, btw) would have given a place for Kevin Burke in Indiana political history. But, it likely wouldn't have been a good place, as he soon would have become a pariah around the state Democratic party.