An article from Sunday’s Indianapolis Star:

3 interested in Rokita’s job

It’s only October, but the next secretary of state race is going strong.

One Republican — Hamilton County GOP Chairman Charlie White — and two Democrats — Tom McKenna, a Carmel resident who headed the Department of Commerce under then-Gov. Joe Kernan, and Vop Osili, an Indianapolis architect — have filed papers with the Indiana Election Division forming exploratory committees for the office.

Voters will pick the next secretary of state in November 2010. The incumbent, Republican Todd Rokita, cannot seek a third term.

But it’s Rokita that has spurred the interest, at least on the Democratic side.

Osili, 46, and McKenna, 63, cited the voter ID law that Rokita helped push into state law as a factor in their decisions to run.

“We all want to make sure our process of voting is protected,” Osili said.

But, he added, Indiana’s law — the strictest in the nation and recently overturned by an appeals court — goes too far in putting up barriers to voting.

McKenna also singled out the voting ID law, which requires people to present a government-issued photo ID that has an expiration date. Some have argued that discriminates against students at private colleges, whose college ID is not accepted, and elderly people who do not have a government-issued ID such as a driver’s license.

While Indiana must make sure that only those qualified to vote do so, the state also must be sure that anyone who is qualified gets to cast their vote, he said.

When Vop Osili says that he wants “to make sure our process of voting is protected,” what he really means is that he wants to protect the ability for lefty groups like ACORN to be able to get away with mischief.

(Read more after the leap)

I just received this in my e-mail. Charlie has been working hard around the State of Indiana and now it is official. Please consider Charlie for Secretary of State, he is a great man and I know he would serve the State of Indiana well (note…this is my opinion and not necessarily the opinion of others here on Hoosier Access)

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Fishers, IN September 14, 2009-After 10 months of touring nearly 70 counties in the Hoosier State as an exploratory candidate, Charlie White, Republican Fishers Town Councilman, has announced his intention to run for Indiana Secretary of State (SOS) in 2010. Todd Rokita, who is currently in the SOS office, is term limited from seeking this office again.

Please forward this message to all of your contacts. For more information, please e-mail the campaign at campaign@charlieforindiana.com

Tonight, precinct committeemen from Marion and Hamilton Counties met to select a new State Senator for District 30 to replace Teresa Lubbers. On the second ballot, by a margin of 61 to 38, former City-County Councilman Scott Schneider defeated City-County Councilman Ryan Vaughn (who works at Barnes & Thornburg, was endorsed by Mayor Greg Ballard, and was generally seen as the establishment choice).

Former state representative John Ruckelshaus (who lost to Lubbers in the primary in the district when it was an open seat) was eliminated on the first ballot. The margin on that ballot showed Schneider with 49 votes, Vaughn with 37, Ruckelshaus with 12, and one ballot spoiled. Vaughn gained only one vote on the second ballot; apparently either all of Ruckelshaus’ supporters voted for Schneider on the second ballot, a substantial number of Vaughn’s supporters bailed and deserted him, or there was a good bit of bandwagoning (or all of the above).

Hoosier Access streamed the caucus live online, including the pre-vote speeches of each candidate, and had interviews with all three of the candidates.

This election marks but the latest time that the Indianapolis establishment has gone to bat in a caucus, convention, or primary, only to be decisively sent packing by the party base. Indeed, Scheider’s margin of victory–61 to 38–isn’t all that different from Greg Zoeller’s 60% to 40% convention victory over Jon Costas in June of last year.

Time and again, “wiser” insiders in Indianapolis have tried to pick winners in these contests. Time and again, they have been defeated. Delph beat Randolph, Walker beat Garton, Bailey beat Kellems, Leising beat Sponsel, Zoeller beat Costas, and now Schneider beat Vaughn.

Read more after the leap.

By: Brian Sikma

In Lake County Indiana in 2008, a stack of 2,100 voter registration applications were determined to be fraudulent.  Filled out by ACORN quasi-employees (volunteers getting paid) the applications were not for dead people, they were for people who never even existed.  In one notable and now well-known instance Jimmy John’s, the sandwich shop, tried to register to vote.

Free, open, and honest elections are the heartbeat of our representative government.   The concept of self-government is only a theory until the mechanics of election law and procedure are brought to bear.  If an election is have consequences, and if it is to mean something, it must be held with integrity and the results must not be questionable or open to justifiable suspicion.  Energetic debate and intense campaigning between multiple candidates for public office is acceptable and healthy, but once the balloting is underway the voters must be assured that their vote is legitimate and that it will not be subjected to partisan pressures.

In many states the responsibility for insuring that election law is followed carefully, fully and properly falls to the Secretary of State.  It is this officer’s job to insure that the law is followed in every possible way in order to insure that the outcome of an election genuinely reflects the final judgment of the people.  Because this single task is one of the most important jobs in the state, some left-wing groups, including the supposedly non-partisan Secretary of State Project (SOS Project), have begun targeting Secretary of State races around the country.  They know that if the rules can be relaxed, what cannot win in an honest election can win in a fraudulent election.

[More Below The Fold]

He was the first to announce is candidacy. He’s been to almost every Lincoln Day Dinner in the state thus far. Now, Charlie White is the first Secretary of State candidate to launch his website, www.charlieforindiana.com.

Similar to most initial websites for candidates in a convention race, the site has mostly the basics: bio, get on the e-mail list, donate, and photos with some other important Hoosier Republicans.

White is making a good effort to get out in front of this race. It will be interesting to watch regardless.

You heard it here first.

From the good old email box:

Friends,

While I have spoken to many of you over the past few months about my intent to seek the Office of Indiana Secretary of State in 2010, I wanted you to be the first to know that I am taking the first official step this week in what will be a challenging and exciting path over the next 22 months. I wanted all of you to know immediately of my filing of an exploratory committee and that I will personally be in touch with you over the next few weeks and months to discuss my goals and aspirations for the office. Like you, I have always worked to elect good Republican candidates to public office and to support and implement transparent, efficient and limited government. Perhaps at no time in our country’s history have our core Republican ideals been more critical.

I am very proud of my record of results with respect to the furtherance of these ideals. In 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 we focused significant time and attention on the election of strong local candidates in Hamilton County and on the election of Governor Daniels and our statewide tickets. In this past election, as county chairman and the leader of a great team of staff and volunteers, Hamilton County delivered Governor Daniels a vote margin of 87,172 and a complete sweep for all Republicans seeking office there.

(Read the rest of Charlie’s letter after the leap)