Muncie bully suspended for three days

"Your action has resulted in significant damage to the image of Delaware County and the Republican Party".

That was Delaware County GOP Chair Kaye Whitehead's statement to voter registration official Will Statom on Monday as she suspended him without pay for three days. She also ordered Statom, 56, to pursue "anger management training." Statom claims that his attack last week on Muncie Star reporter Nick Werner (and Barry Welsh) came in part because he was outraged over an article in The Star Press had "promoted" a meeting of the Delaware County Election Board that he maintained was conducted illegally. On Monday Statom issued a letter of apology to Werner; he maintains the blow to Barry Welsh's eye was an accident.

More importantly, it now appears that all of the voter registrations in Delaware County will be processed:

Statom returned to work the day after the incident and worked briefly last weekend with other voter registration clerks and Democratic board member Margie Landers, also Democratic Party chairman, to process hundreds of registration applications from would-be voters.

On Monday, Republicans brought in a new clerk, Andrea Kuzma, to work with fellow Republican clerk Mary Kuzma to process registrations.

Landers declined to comment on Statom's suspension, but said it was not fair that Republicans were not staying late or working extra hours to process new registrations.

On Monday, Landers had volunteers Amanda Dunnuck and Shelley Lacy, the Democratic chairman's daughter, help with the registrations. Today, Democrats will add two part-time clerks and Republicans will bring in another part-time clerk to help with registrations and process voters who vote early in the election board office.

The new voters have been served, the redneck bully at least got a slap on the wrist, and Barry Welsh can only benefit from the news cycle on this story. Win-win for all of us here in the heartland!