Indiana Secretary of State Sued by Common Cause

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A lawsuit was filed on Thursday that claims voters are robbed of a meaningful vote because of judicial elections. The lawsuit was filed by Common Cause, which is an open-government group. The Indiana Secretary of State in Indianapolis was sued by Common Cause in federal court. The lawsuit claims that First Amendment rights of voters are violated because of the process of choosing the 36 superior court judges in Merion County, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Next week there are 20 of the 36 Merion County judges up for election. The remaining 16 judges are up for election in 2016. In the county, according to state law, all 20 of the judges will be running unopposed in the election. Common Cause is being represented by the ACLU, which provided a news release that said,

  

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Under Indiana law, each of the major political parties conducts a primary election at which it selects exactly half of the seats to be filled, which renders the general election a mere formality. Voters in Marion County who do not cast a ballot in the primary election, therefore, have absolutely no say in electing judges to the Marion Superior Court. This process means that even people who do vote in the primary election have a say in only half of the judgeships to be filled.

“At its very lowest common denominator, the right to vote is right to exercise a legally meaningful vote,” said Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana’s legal director. “But in Merion County, you’re given half a vote at the time of the primary election, and essentially nothing at the time of the general election.”