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Polling site inspector Margo Kelly testifies before the Marion County Election Board on Tuesday about a disturbance that occurred on Election Day 2024. (Photo/Marilyn Odendahl)

By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
January 23, 2025

The Marion County Election Board has delayed making a decision about whether a voter who entered a polling site in Indianapolis on Election Day with two handguns and caused a disturbance violated a new state law prohibiting intimidation of poll workers.

At its meeting Tuesday in the City-County Building, the election board heard more details about the incident and, again, saw a video of a man appearing to confront poll workers inside the voting center at the First Friends, a Quaker church. The board first reviewed the investigative report and video of the episode at its meeting Dec. 13, but moved to give the man, who was not at the hearing, another opportunity to tell his side of the story before reaching any conclusions.

“He deserves to have his say to us before we make our decision,” Kate Sweeney Bell, secretary of the election board, said after the hearing. She said she wants to hear from him about what happened, what he was thinking when he put his cap on a poll worker’s head and pulled off his T-shirt to reveal two guns and a knife in his waistband.

“I don’t know what was in his mind and he deserves for us to hear that, especially if we’re making a determination to potentially forward this to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office,” Sweeney Bell said.

The election board is using Senate Enrolled Act 170, passed by the Indiana General Assembly with strong bipartisan support in 2024, to look deeper into this incident. Under the law, any individual who obstructs or interferes with an election worker or a voter trying to cast a ballot on Election Day or who threatens or injures an election worker commits a Level 6 felony. This is the lowest level felony in the Indiana criminal code, but it is punishable with a jail sentence no longer than two and a half years and up to a $10,000 fine.

Once the review is completed, Sweeney Bell said the board will make a determination as to whether the voter violated SEA 170. If the board believes a violation occurred, the case will be forwarded to the prosecutor’s office, she said, and if the board decides the law was not violated, the case will be dropped.

“I know our prosecutor takes voting very seriously and elections very seriously,” Sweeney Bell said of Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears. “They will not rest until and unless some form of justice is had and it is for us to determine whether to send that to the prosecutor’s office. That is what our job is.”

Sweeney Bell believes this is the first time in Indiana an election board has considered invoking the new law. And without the law, she said, “nothing could be done” to address this incident of possible intimidation of a poll worker.

“This is a very big deal,” Sweeney Bell said. “When it comes to protecting poll workers and protecting voters, there is nothing that this board will not do to ensure their safety and security.”

According to the board’s outside counsel, Daniel Pulliam, the voter is now being represented by an attorney and has asked for a 30-day extension before having to appear before the board.

Pulliam told the board members that the voter was served on Dec. 13 with a notice printed on the board’s letterhead that included a description of the charges he was facing along with the Jan. 21 hearing date. The voter, Pulliam said, was armed when he greeted the process server and told the individual to leave his property, but he did accept the notice.

Sweeney Bell pointed out that the voter already had more than a month’s notice of the January meeting and wondered why he would need an extra 30 days. Pulliam replied the voter had retained attorney M. Edward Krause III less than a week ago, so more time might be needed to prepare.

“I do think there’s merit in hearing his side of the story if he shows up and decided to give his side of the story,” Pulliam said. “Hearing both sides has value.”

The board then decided to recess, after Pulliam offered to try to coordinate a time with Krause for the voter to appear before the election board within the 30-day window.

Krause did not return voicemail and email messages seeking a comment.

‘They need to be protected’

Since 2016, board members said, the temperature and tempers surrounding elections have risen. Election boards and poll workers are under more scrutiny, driven, in part, by leaders and officials who say abusive behavior is acceptable.

Jennifer Ping, vice chair of the Marion County Election Board, said having worked the polls for more than 20 years, she, herself, has been yelled at and has witnessed the increasing lack of respect among voters for the poll workers and the voting process. She advocated for the poll worker protection bill in the legislature, saying the law is imperative to addressing the abusive actions of some voters.

“In a bipartisan fashion, that bill was drafted and passed, and I’m really glad that we have that for us to be able to utilize today,” Ping said of SEA 170.

Margo Kelly, the inspector for the polling site at First Friends when the incident occurred on Election Day, said, in the past, she has encountered voters who “are a little eccentric about certain things” but after giving them some attention and walking them through the voting process, they are fine. The episode with the voter on Nov. 5, 2024, she said, was the “most extreme” she has ever handled, because she never had to deal with anyone openly carrying weapons at a voting site.

Kelly testified about the incident with the voter before the board on Tuesday.

According to Kelly and an investigative report of the incident, as well as a cellphone video of the encounter, the voter entered the voting center wearing a red MAGA baseball cap and a T-shirt with a picture of President Donald Trump. Wearing political attire is prohibited by state law inside or within 50 feet of the entrance of a polling place. When a poll worker asked the voter to remove his hat and turn his T-shirt inside out, he became belligerent, yelling and using foul language, Kelly told the board. He then put his cap on the poll worker’s head and pulled off his shirt. One of his guns was visible when he walked into the vote center, she said, but the second gun and the knife were exposed after he removed his shirt.

“You can’t appreciate from the video how hostile and belligerent he was,” Kelly said.

After she called police, Kelly escorted the man to the front of the voter check-in line and then got him to a voting terminal, where he was able to cast his ballot. At that point, she told him that he could put his shirt back on, which he did. Once he was finished with the voting process, Kelly walked him to the exit.

Kelly credited the de-escalation training that was provided to the poll workers prior to the election with helping to defuse the situation. Still, she said, people in the voting center were fearful and her team was “very concerned” about the voter’s behavior and weapons.

“They need to know they’re protected,” Kelly said of poll workers. “They need to be protected. It’s critical to the voting process and, as long as we’re having voting centers and people are coming in-person to vote, the people that help in that situation need to be protected.”

Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journal.

The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org.

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