Editor’s note: The print version of this story contained an incorrect name reference in the final paragraph. It has been corrected in this version, to note that Judge Frank Nardi signed the initial order that the court take no action on the complaint.
A special prosecutor from Jackson County has been appointed to investigate allegations that a county commissioner candidate and a member of the Brown County Election Board violated an election law during the May primary.
Jeffrey Chalfant was appointed to the case earlier this month. Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams asked the court that a different prosecutor review and investigate the allegations “to avoid the appearance of impropriety.”
Chalfant’s role will be to “determine the veracity of the allegations filed peculiarly with the court,” Adams wrote. He added that he “knows of no request for an investigation by local law enforcement into the allegations of electioneering.”
At a July 26 meeting of the Brown County Election Board, Alan Birkemeier submitted pictures showing incumbent Brown County commissioner Diana Biddle standing at the Jackson 1 and 2 polling place on primary election day behind one set of signs that read, “Electioneering prohibited past this point. It is a crime to electioneer in an unauthorized area.” She was standing next to a second set of signs that carried the same message.
Alan Birkemeier is the brother of Kyle Birkemeier, a Democrat who is running against Biddle for commissioner.
In the photos, she appears to be speaking in the presence of three people. The identity of two of them is unknown; one of them Biddle identified as a polling place inspector.
Biddle told the election board that the inspector had car trouble and she was making sure he had a way back to the courthouse that night. She also said that she had entered the polling place from the side and she didn’t see the first set of prohibition signs that were further from the building. If she had seen them, she wouldn’t have crossed them, she told the board.
The election board voted 3-0 to dismiss the complaint.
On Aug. 2, Sherrie Mitchell, a Democrat candidate for Brown County Council, and resident Paul Navarro wrote a letter to Stewart, Adams and Brown County Clerk Brenda Woods asking that a special prosecutor investigate Biddle’s actions on primary election day.
In that letter, they also asked that a special prosecutor examine the actions of Susanne Gaudin, election board representative for the Republican Party, on primary election day. The letter didn’t elaborate on the specific allegation against her.
The state law they cited as the basis for both investigations was IC 3-14-3-16, which prohibits anyone from “expressing support or opposition to any candidate or political party … in any manner that could reasonably be expected to convey that support or opposition to another individual” on election day in the polls, the chute (the waiting area where voters stand), or an area where absentee voting is taking place. That is considered electioneering. Electioneering also includes wearing or displaying clothing, signs or buttons with a candidate’s name or picture, the law says.
In his filing requesting the special prosecutor, Adams noted that he is of the same political party as Gaudin and Biddle and is friends with both of them, and both he and Biddle are up for re-election. In addition, he wrote that he has heard the complaints discussed in a private setting since he serves on the Brown County GOP Central Committee.
After Adams received the letter from Mitchell and Navarro in early August, Judge Frank Nardi had ordered that the court take no action on Mitchell’s and Navarro’s request for a special prosecutor. The reason was because they didn’t follow the correct procedure. Mitchell later refiled the petition, and Adams went ahead with the request.
