INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Republicans on Friday made the call for a federal investigation into the 2008 Indiana campaign of Barack Obama, and at least one Democratic leader expressed support for such an inqury. This comes after a newspaper investigation reveled allegations of voter fraud.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
In order for a candidate to get on the ballot in Indiana, their camp must collect 500 petition signatures in each Congressional district. Barack Obama’s campaign did that, but in the South Bend area, a large number of those signatures were apparently forged, according to an investigation by the South Bend Tribune . The newspaper reports there weren’t enough legitimate signatures on petitions for Obama to meet the legal requirement in the second congressional district.
If that’s true, Republican Mike McDaniel said on Indiana Week in Review, “He wouldn’t be eligible to be on the primary ballot in Indiana.”
Despite crowds that numbered in the thousands on Indiana campaign visits that year, as many as a hundred signatures were forged on the second destrict, including that of former Gov. Joe Kernan, according to the Tribune.
State Republican Chairman Eric Holcomb wants answers.
“What happened, who was involved and what’s the appropriate punishment for that crime?” he said.
Democrats, including Ann DeLaney, director of the Julian Center and former Indiana Democratic Party chairwoman, support the call for a Justice Department investigation.
“There’s supposed to be a system of checks and balances in this,” she said on Indiana Week in Review, “and they need to be observed. And they’re observed for a reason: so that people have confidence in the integrity of the sytem. And if something’s wrong up there, it needs to be fixed.”
Holcomb also expressed concern that the problem could extend beyond the second district.
“This may be in fact the tip of the iceberg,” Holcomb said, “and I’m sure we’ll learn more as the facts come into the light.”
There is no way to overturn the Obama election, but the findings could have a bearing on the next one.
Kip Tew, an Indiana advisor to the 2008 Obama campaign, said that if the system worked properly, fraudulent signatures would have been identified immediately and replaced. He said there was no danger of Obama being left off the ballot, but we’ll never know.
