A national Latino civil rights organization has asked a federal judge
to appoint election examiners to oversee the troubled East Chicago
elections and monitor the vote tabulation.The Mexican American Legal
Defense Educational Fund has filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge
Allen Sharp to expand his October 2003 temporary injunction, which
ordered greater scrutiny of the city's elections. Sharp's original
ruling required translators and election materials in Spanish. MALDEF
requested Sharp intervene after the courts found evidence of
manipulation of people with limited English speaking ability in the
2003 East Chicago Democratic mayoral primary. Voters in East Chicago
are headed to the polls Oct. 26 for a special primary election, because
the state Supreme Court threw out the original vote, citing widespread
fraud. Several entities have called for some form of monitoring after
the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the May 2003 primary, in which
incumbent Mayor Robert Pastrick ran against former City Councilman
George Pabey and former City Judge Lonnie Randolph. [more ]
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