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Jun
18
Indiana’s Voter ID Snags Busloads of Illinois Voters
Filed Under East Chicago, East Chicago Indiana, Election 2008, Lake County, vote fraud, voter ID | Leave a Comment
Photo by Fuschia Foot
Voter ID Law Catches Illinois Residents Trying To Vote In Lake County, Indiana, according to testimony before the Lake County election board.
It was just a matter of time before the stories of strange happenings came out of Lake County, Indiana’s primary voting and we’re just not talking about how long it took for Gary, Indiana to count its votes — despite widespread use of electronic voting machines in regular and early absentee voting.
The Northwest Indiana Times reports that the Lake County election board heard testimony that “busloads of Illinois residents and downstate Indiana students” appeared at Lake County polls hoping to vote. Election officials at the polling places didn’t allow the out-of-state and the downstate voters to cast ballots in the Indiana primary when Illinois drivers’ licenses were presented to poll workers, reports the newspaper.
Reports Bill Dolan in “Wrong Primary, Voters Are Told. Complaint Says Busloads of Illinois Residents Tried To Vote In Indiana.”
Raymond Lopez, chairman of the East Chicago and Whiting Republican organization, told the Lake County elections board, busloads of Illinois residents and downstate Indiana students who weren’t registered to vote in East Chicago or Whiting appeared at those communities’ polls, according to Republican election workers to whom he spoke.
“It was quite a few. They showed us Illinois driver’s licenses. We asked them why they were here and they said ‘We were told to vote here.’”
Feb
4
Don’t Cut Spending - Raise Taxes?
Filed Under East Chicago Indiana, Gary Indiana, Hammond Indiana, Income Tax, Lake County Council, Miller Beach Indiana, budget cut, local government reform, property tax crisis, property tax reform, quality of life, tax revolt, tax sale, taxes | 2 Comments
A newspaper column explains why Northwest Indiana will never pare back government spending and will always look to raising taxes until the pain causes people to revolt a la Gary’s Miller residents and the anti- Lake Co. income tax rebellion.
Writes those rebellious folks at MCC Legal Defense fund set up by Gary’s Miller Citizens Corp.:
It has been said that if you want something to disappear, tax it. The MCC Legal Defense Fund certainly does not want homeowners to disappear …
Northwest Indiana Times columnist Janet Moran suggests cutting Lake County spending could result in dire effects — cuts in police and fire response — and suggests that the solution might be to raise taxes on property owners who are perceived to have more than others.
Writes Janet Moran:
Cutting local spending as the entire panacea to this whole property tax mess is a stick-your-head-in-the-sand, simplistic approach to Lake County’s predicament. Absolutely, there’s a critical need to comb unnecessary spending. But predicted revenue shortages go deeper than that. There’s no quick, one-size-fits-all utopian fix.
An appraiser in LaPorte County recently made an apt observation that to provide $58,000 in property taxes for local schools it took 140 average homes in Michigan City, but only five homes in the city’s upscale Sheridan Beach.
Janet Moran seems to suggest raising taxes on all of Lake County more to raise funds for Hammond, East Chicago and Gary.
Does is this the start of an opinion offensive to gather support for higher property taxes aimed at Gary’s lake front Miller Beach neighborhood and other places perceived to have wealth?
Could this be an effort to soften up voters as the proponents of higher taxes try to resuscitate the loathed Lake County income tax?
