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Litigation

Schoettle v. Marion County Board of elections

Case Information

Date Filed: October 29, 2008
State: Indiana
Issues: Absentee Ballots, Improper Election Administration
Courts that Heard this Case: Marion County Circuit Court (Case 49C01 08 10 PL 049131); Indiana Court of Appeals (Case 49A05-0810-CV-637); Indiana Supreme Court (Case )

Issue:

Whether the Marion County Board of Election may count challenged absentee ballots on Tuesday or whether the challenged ballots can counted later with the provisional ballots after additional scrutiny. 

Status:

NOTICE: The electronic docket for this case is not freely available to the public. Filings in this case are not being monitored on a daily basis. Select documents will be added to this page when possible.

Circuit Court issued order on 10/31/08 preventing challenged absentee ballots from being counted until later in the week.  The Court of Appeals issued a stay of this order pending an appeal.  The Indiana Supreme Court  reinstated the trial court's order on 11/3/08.   

Indiana Supreme Court Documents

Court of Appeals Documents

Circuit Court Documents

Related Articles

Commentary

Donald B. Tobin

FAQ on social welfare organizations

Donald B. Tobin

The Frank E. and Virginia H. Bazler Designated Professor in Business Law and a senior fellow at Election Law @ Moritz explains the nuances of social welfare organizations and federal regulations related to them.

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In the News

Donald B. Tobin

How Did The IRS Get The Job Of Vetting Political Activity?

Professor Donald Tobin was interviewed by the Boston NPR station on its show Here & Now about the Internal Revenue Service's investigation into groups classified as social welfare organizations (marked by the 501(c)(4) tax classification). The IRS was in search of groups that are not focusing primarly on the social welfare of the country, but have a strong political advocacy facet. Political advocacy groups might want to be classified as 501(c)(4) organizations because under that classification they do not have to disclose their donors.

"The key is if you going to be engaged in candidate-type advocacy, and if you're going to intervene in elections and engage in election advocacy, we want disclosure of who your donors are," Tobin said.

“What groups are trying to do here is avoid having to disclose,” Tobin continued. “By earning the classification of social welfare, they’re avoiding the campaign disclosure that’s required for political organizations. So that’s really the underpinning of why we have this mess of the IRS having to get in and investigate and figure out whether an organization is political or not.”

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Info & Analysis

Ohio House Committee Recommends Upholding Landis' Election Victory

Yesterday, an Ohio House of Representatives committee recommended 5-4 that the Ohio House uphold the election victory of Republican State Representative Al Landis over Democratic challenger Josh O'Farrell. In February, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the O'Farrell v. Landis record to the House for consideration. According to an article in the Canton Repository, committee chairman and State Representative Matt Huffman said he expects a vote by the full House later this month.

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