(From left) Monroe County Election Board members Nicole Browne and Donovan Garletts and Guy Loftman, sitting in as a proxy for board member David Henry.
(Courtesy of Monroe County Government)
The Monroe County election board will consider additional election law violations by a Bloomington City Council candidate accused of running under a false address if he votes in the upcoming primary election.
The three-member board on Friday laid four additional violations of Indiana Code that David Wolfe Bender could be criminally charged in connection with, should he vote.
Board chair Donovan Garletts, a Republican, said that if the board finds Bender falsified his voter registration, he would be breaking additional election laws by casting a ballot.
“That’s not a veiled threat,” Garletts said at the meeting. “(If) we find that Mr. Bender votes, based on this voter registration, we will be forced — at least in my eyes — doing our due diligence to add these additional things to forward to the prosecutor.”
Board members are concerned about state code covering false voter information statements, voting by ineligible persons, ballot fraud and unregistered or unauthorized voting.
A violation of the first three of those sections carries a possible level 6 felony while a violation of the last carries a possible class A misdemeanor.
Bender filed to run in the city’s sixth district and is currently the only candidate for that seat. He came under investigation in March after Monroe County Republican Party Vice Chair William Ellis submitted a complaint questioning Bender’s residency.
That complaint was based on a Feb. 17 Indiana Daily Student article citing an anonymous resident and neighbors who said Bender does not live at the address he says he does.
Originally, board members named four different sections of state code they believed Bender may have violated. All four were dropped from consideration last week, as the board identified two other sections it found more applicable: sections on campaign violations and false or fraudulent voter registration.
Violations of both those sections carry a possible level 6 felony.
However, Garletts said the board is not required to specify which laws may have been violated if it identifies “substantial reason to believe an election law violation has occurred,” as stated in state code.
The board’s investigation will proceed because all three board members agreed on that point.
Meanwhile, Bender, whom board members say has not communicated with them except through an attorney, says he intends to withdraw his candidacy.
Bender is being represented by attorney Manny Herceg with Indianapolis law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister. Herceg wrote to board members in early March notifying them of Bender’s intent to withdraw.
WFIU/WTIU obtained a copy of that letter. It reads as follows:
“David has decided to withdraw his candidacy for Bloomington Common Council District VI. David wanted to run to help his community, but since the Republican party signaled it would pursue a challenge to David’s candidacy, that distraction would take away from the good David aimed to do. He needs to focus on his studies and will find other ways to help the city.
“Please confirm David’s withdrawal in writing on behalf of the Monroe County Election Board, and confirm that the Board will not take any action on this issue moving forward. Any communication on this matter should be directed to me or my partner, Tracy Betz, who is copied here.”
At the March 23 meeting in which that letter was read aloud, board member and Monroe County Clerk Nicole Browne considered turning the board’s findings over to law enforcement.
Herceg responded to Browne’s comments in another letter to the board. It reads:
“Since the last time we communicated, I’ve been made aware that the Clerk made a statement at the last hearing about setting a precedent by not pursuing an investigation and letting someone withdraw. That statement puzzles me. David has indicated that he has withdrawn, and there’s no permission needed. So, there’s no precedent to be set (setting aside the fact that Board decisions aren’t precedential in a true sense anyway). If the Board moved forward, it would signal that it is willing to spend resources investigating a non-candidate for some political purposes. I’m hoping the Board will not allow this to become more of a distraction.”
Browne has said she wanted Bender to explain his situation to the board directly.
“It took a turn when we started getting correspondence from an attorney,” Browne said. “Who just gets an attorney in response to some very simple questions about residency?”
The election board is made up of Browne and David Henry, both Democrats, and Garletts, a Republican. Browne, a Democrat, is the only elected member of the board.
The board decided at a recent meeting that it will not subpoena Bender as part of its investigation, as doing so might delay the process.
Retired Bloomington lawyer and ex-board member Guy Loftman has sat in as a proxy for Henry, who is also the chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party.
The period for a candidate to request their name be removed from the ballot has passed, meaning Bender could still win the primary.
To date, Bender and his attorney have not responded to requests for comment from WFIU/WTIU News.
