My Complaint to the Allen County Election Board

Posted by Mike Sylvester - 4/19/08 @ 11:09 pm - Filed Under 2008 Local Elections, Local Politics

April 19th, 2008
Room 136
1 East Main Street
Fort Wayne, IN 46802-1811

This complaint was faxed to the Allen County Election Board at 260-449-7908 at noon on April 19th, 2008. This complaint was emailed to the Allen County Election Board at electionboard@co.allen.in.us at noon on April 19th, 2008. This complaint was also mailed to each member of the Allen County Election Board (Therese M. Brown, Andrew M. Downs, and Zachary E. Klutz) on April 19th via the US Mail Service.

The Journal Gazette ran a front page article on April 18th, 2008 concerning the pre-primary CFA-4 reports filed by both the Allen County Republican and the Allen County Democratic Parties. The Journal Gazette article discusses in detail the fact that the Allen County GOP properly listed all of their outstanding debts on the CFA-4 form as required by Indiana Campaign Finance Law. The Allen County Democratic Party elected not to list any outstanding debts on their CFA-4 form. In fact per the Journal Gazette article Mike Bynum, the Chairman of the Allen County Democratic Party, told the Journal Gazette that “the party did not list every outstanding bill on its report, as he didn’t believe it was necessary.”

Indiana Campaign Finance Law is 100% clear on this issue. I direct your attention to the 2008 Indiana Campaign Finance Manual where it clearly states on page 55:

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This section of the 2008 Campaign Finance Manual is clear and broadly defines debts. Clearly the Allen County Democratic Chairman is not interpreting the law correctly and the CFA-4 form filed by the Allen County Democratic Party should be corrected immediately.

Debts owed by a Committee are listed on CFA-4 Schedule D. The instructions at the top of this form states the following:
“List all debts and loans, regardless of the amount, OWED BY the committee during the reporting period. Include all amounts owed for or to lend institutions, individuals, credit purchases, committee credit card accounts, etc.”

Once again, I feel that the instructions on the top of CFA-4 Schedule D are extremely clear and require that every debt regardless of the amount be listed.

I request that you inform me of the date, time, and location of the meeting during which you will discuss my complaint as I would like to attend the meeting if my schedule allows.

Sincerely yours,

Mike Sylvester