Indianapolis, IN – In a victory for voting rights, Marion County, Indiana has agreed that 200 Indiana residents will not be blocked from casting a ballot tomorrow. The County was about to drop these voters just because they registered to vote using an older registration form.
Project Vote filed an emergency lawsuit yesterday against Secretary of State Todd Rokita and the Marion County Board of Elections on behalf of Drametra Brown, an Indianapolis nursing assistant. Staff at the nursing home where Ms. Brown works used a stack of 2004 application forms to register voters, including Brown, but these forms are slightly different from the 2008 form currently in use. Specifically, Marion County had said they could not accept it because it lacked two small check boxes stating that she was over the age of 18 and a United States Citizen.
The form that Brown completed requires each registrant to swear under penalty of perjury that “I am a citizen of the United States” and “I will be at least 18 years of age at the next general election.” It does not, however, have the two small yes/no checkboxes that the 2008 forms have. So both forms contain the same information, just in a different format.
In a hearing this afternoon on Project Vote’s suit, the judge determined that all of the information contained on Brown’s voter registration form was sufficient to process the voter registrations and allow Brown and her fellow Indiana citizens the opportunity to vote. The Marion County board agreed to allow Ms. Brown and the 200 other eligible registrants in the county who correctly submitted registrations on an older form to vote tomorrow. Due to the late date the voters will cast provisional ballots, but by court order the ballots will be counted. Project Vote is contacting other people in Marion County who were rejected for this reason and letting them know that they can cast a ballot tomorrow.
“The judge agreed that this was a case of people who did everything right, and deserved to have their voices heard,” says Teresa James, attorney for Project Vote. “We are thrilled that we were able to take action to ensure that their votes will be counted.”
Brown herself is ecstatic that she will be able to vote in this election.
“I was too embarrassed to tell my friends and family that I wasn’t going to be able to vote in this important election,” said Brown. “I’m so excited that I get to vote that I want to scream it from the rooftops. I never knew how much it would mean to me to vote until that right was almost taken away.”