Republican Indiana Secretary Of State Charlie White Indicted For Voter Fraud. WOW, This Vote Fraud SH*T Has Moved From Eastern Kentucky To Indiana.

Indiana secretary of state indicted, accused of voter fraud

NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White was indicted Thursday on seven felony charges, and pressure arose almost immediately for him to step aside.

People in both parties — including Gov. Mitch Daniels, like White a Republican — said it would be wrong for Indiana’s top elections official to serve under the cloud of alleged voter fraud, theft and perjury.

But White’s immediate reaction was no.

“I believe the evidence will prove that I did not intentionally break any laws,” White said in a statement shortly after he was booked at the Hamilton County Jail. “But more importantly I will continue to do the job I was elected to do.”

A Hamilton County grand jury indicted White on three counts of voter fraud for allegedly lying about his address when he voted in last year’s Republican primary. He also faces charges of perjury and fraud on a financial institution – again, for lying about his address – as well as theft for continuing to collect his salary as a Fishers Town Council member after moving from his designated district.

White has explained his actions as mistakes made in the heat of his 2010 campaign for secretary of state.

Dan Sigler, one of two special prosecutors chosen because of White’s political affiliations in Hamilton County, countered that White willfully deceived voters and the town of Fishers.

“The grand jury indicted him not because of an honest mistake, but for a willful violation of the law,” Sigler said. “He did it to hold on to his council seat.”

Only a felony conviction would require White to lose his elected position — and it doesn’t appear there is anything the governor, the legislature, the party or the voters can do to strip him of the office in the meantime except pressure him to resign or, at least, temporarily step aside.

And there was plenty of pressure Thursday.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Daniels said the “only course of honor” is for White to step aside, at least until a verdict is reached. And, he added, every other statewide officeholder — all fellow Republicans — agreed.

“It would be neither credible nor appropriate,” Daniels said, “for the state’s top elections official to continue to perform his duties while contesting criminal charges, some of them under the very laws the secretary of state implements.”

Democrats had raised the address issue in the campaign, but White won easily over Democrat Vop Osili and Libertarian Mike Wherry.

Julia Vaughn, policy director for the citizens’ watchdog group Common Cause/Indiana, said she believes White needs to resign.

“Seven felony indictments is incredibly serious. It casts a cloud over the office,” Vaughn said. “I don’t see how he can enforce the law with any credibility.”

But Jim Bopp, a Republican National Committee member and a Terre Haute attorney who is representing White in a civil case that Democrats brought challenging his eligibility to take office, defended White’s defiance.

“He’s entitled to the presumption of innocence just like every other person. I talked to him about it,” Bopp said. “I’m confident that this doesn’t rise to the level of a criminal offense. … He had kind of a chaotic personal living situation at the time. To suggest that he intentionally did this for some gain is just absurd.”

Still, Indiana Republican Party Chairman Eric Holcomb called on White to take a leave of absence until the charges are resolved, a move that would put Deputy Secretary of State Sean Keefer in charge.

U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, who was secretary of state before White’s election, agreed, saying White “cannot credibly or adequately do his duties while contesting criminal charges.”

Anthony Long, a Boonville attorney who is one of two Democrats on the four-member Indiana Election Commission, said the charges cast “a real taint on the whole election process as the chief election officer of the state. He ought to consider stepping aside.”

State law declares an office is vacant the moment an officeholder is convicted of a felony. Sigler said it could take six months or more for the case to work through Hamilton County’s court system.