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!

Obama in Muncie

Barry Welsh: What happened in Muncie

Barry posted the following diary this afternoon on Kos, and kindly asked that I cross-post it here as well. It is my pleasure to do so:

Yes, I got hit in the eye, but the real fight is for Democracy IN-06

First, I want to thank everybody in the Kos community and all of the Netroots Nation for the support and well wishes that have come my way because of this incident. I must give a HUGE personal thank you to sarahlane, pontio, bluestatemeant, JR, Daily Activist, Pioneer 111, along
with everyone for their comments, and the great folks at EENR and Democrats.com.

Now, the story that has not been told is what happened in that meeting. Everything has been overshadowed by the violence, and what took place in the meeting itself needs to come out.

The story is not dying locally as the attacker is in the Muncie paper today calling the attack an “attention getter”.

"It (the attack on Werner) wouldn't have happened if you hadn't promoted it," Statom said. "When you promote illegal activities, there's ramifications." He is blaming the newspaper! I feel the truth is, Statom was trying to stop the newspaper from reporting on what he said, and his tone in the meeting itself.

The meeting was called because the Republican County Chair of Delaware County told Ball State Students and supporters of Barack Obama, that the voter registrations they had turned in on time could not be counted and processed because of understaffing. The understaffing was because the Republican county chair had not appointed anyone to fill a vacancy since 2006! The Republican county chair was not at the meeting and sent a proxy who attempted to bully the process and argue semantics. I was at the meeting on requests from Ball Sate Students and African American activists who were concerned for their rights and the those that they had registered.

Mr. Statom, who launched the attack after the meeting, spoke during the meeting as well. Statom said the Ball State registrations should not be a concern because the students wouldn’t vote anyway. Then he focused on the African American community members in attendance and said, “I don’t have to sit here and listen to THESE people.” It was the way that the words came out and all in attendance knew what he was actually saying. I was so offended by his tone
and remarks that I spontaneously stood up along with many others in objection and disgust. Statom said the forms would probably all be sloppy and illegible and that this was a big to do over nothing.

For point of clarity, there were close to 2000 new registrations turned in on that last day alone, and 25 of them were Republican. Motive for inaction? You be the judge on that but I have my opinion and there is no doubt in my mind.

The registration forms need to be processed by April 15th to allow enough time to have the precinct voter files and voter ID books printed so there is a real and just time frame concern. I have been assured that all registrations will be processed on time, but I am going to be continuing to check on a daily basis to make certain.

The reporter that was attacked, Nick Wermer, called me this morning and he is doing ok. He told me that he didn’t remember much because it happened so fast and was a blur, but he remembered the determination on my face when I was trying to break the choke hold and he said Mike Pence may advocate shield laws for the press but Barry Welsh went to the floor for me and I won ’t forget that. He said I was a hero, and while that is heartwarming, I am not the hero. The heroes are those students and members of the African American community that spent all of that time bringing new people into the political process and I again thank all of them.

The republicans are scared here folks! They are now even scared of me. The guy that runs low budget, grass roots, people powered campaigns. We have raised some money from 5, 10, 20, and 100 dollar donors, and thank you to all of you that have made that happen. If you are reading this and can contribute the pre primary maximum of $2,300 dollars, please consider doing so. If 50 of you can contribute the maximum, and we raise $100,000 dollars this weekend over what happened, the fear will increase 100,000 times, and I think they deserve that! Here’s an Actblue link.

Here are links to previous diaries and also to media coverage, even Fox!

dailykos.com/story/2008/4/9
dailykos.com/story/2008/4/9
dailykos.com/story/2008/4/9
dailykos.com/story/2008/4/10
theindychannel.com
thestarpress.com
thestarpress.com

Tomorrow morning I am going to meet Senator Barack Obama in Muncie. I will try to get a diary up about that meeting and his event tomorrow afternoon.

I have taken much harder punches and may again, but never for a better cause than suppressed voter rights and freedom of the press. As Gandhi said, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win. We have been ignored, and we have been laughed at, and the attacks and intimidation are under way, next step is victory in November and we can
and will do that.

Thanks again to all of you for all that you do.

Peace brothers and sisters,

Barry Welsh.

Barry Welsh attacked by GOP thug!

Hat tip: Thomas

Last night I wrote about Delaware County Republicans attempts to disenfranchise 100's of new Democratic voters by claiming they "didn't have the time or resources" to go through the huge number of registrations they received on Monday, the deadline to register. There was to be an emergency hearing today at 1 PM at the County Building in Muncie.

That meeting took place, and turned heated afterwards:

A Republican voter registration deputy faces battery charges after he tackled a newspaper reporter and hit the Democratic 6th District congressional candidate after a contentious Delaware County Election Board meeting this afternoon.

The meeting had just ended when Will Statom, GOP registration deputy and secretary of the local Republican Party, attacked Star Press reporter Nick Werner while Werner was interviewing Ball State University student Johanna Perez about hundreds of last-minute voter registrations for Democrat Barack Obama's campaign.

"He did not seem very happy that we were stating our opinions," Perez said afterwards about Statom.

Werner said Statom seemed critical of his reporting, sarcastically saying to make sure he screwed up the story again.

Statom had just walked past Werner when Statom turned around and pushed Werner against the wall, grabbed him and they fell to the ground, according to witnesses.

Barry A. Welsh, Democratic 6th district congressional candidate, who attended the meeting, stepped in, and Statom turned around and hit Welsh in the eye.

"When Nick went to the floor, I tried to break it up," Welsh said.

An eyewitness to the event has stated:

I was at the meeting - it was out of control. The man who attacked everyone was accusing Ball State students of being sloppy and wouldn't even vote anyway and then said to the african americans in the crowd "i dont have to take this crap for 'you people' " ... people were yelling at each other through the entire meeting and then the fight broke out afterward. As a student, I was very surprised to see adults act so childish.

When I hear more from Barry, I'll give you his perspective on the day's events. . .

Muncie GOP: "Ball YOU"

In a sense, Muncie is like nearly every other city and town in our state this active primary season. Folks are registering to vote in record numbers. They're excited about their voice being heard. After all, for the first time in 40 years, our primary votes here in the Hoosier state actually carry some weight. People are rightfully excited and are flocking to join the democratic process this year.

For the last four months, the media has reported on the record number of new voter registrations, the huge interest in participation, and the large turnouts in every primary in every state this season. So states such as Indiana, and cities such as Muncie, have had ample time to prepare for this influx. Most states and municipalities have done an outstanding job of this, preparing extra ballots, adding staff as necessary, whatever it takes. That's where Muncie becomes nearly unlike everyone else - GOP members of the Delaware County’s Election Board are stating that registrations filed on time, will not count because there are too many of them and they are short staffed. This is nothing short of voter disenfranchisement and must not be accepted!

The Election Board office there is staffed by three Democratic appointees and two appointees of the Republican Party, which has declined to fill a third vacant position since 2006. Delaware County GOP Chair Kaye Whitehead stated that there "hadn’t been a need for another worker until the office was flooded with applications on Monday, the final day to register to vote in the May primary". Perhaps if Whitehead had found the time to pick up a newspaper, watch tv news, or surf the web over the last few months, she would have realized that some action was needed on her part.

But, then again, all of these record voter registrations and voter turnouts have been created by, and of benefit to, the Democratic contenders for president. So Whitehead has no reason to grease the wheels on the machine that she is partially in charge of. After all, by doing the right thing and serving the taxpayers of Delaware County, she only makes her own job more difficult come November. Despite the demographics of the area, Muncie is a college town. And college students have been voting for Barack Obama in a big way this election cycle. I can understand Whitehead's fear of allowing these youths to add their voice to the choir. But she has a greater responsibility to the populace that outweighs her partisan views. It's nothing short of a disgrace that she would attempt to deny their votes for the sake of her political party.

Phil Nichols, a Democratic member and president of Delaware County’s Election Board, has called for an an emergency meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the Delaware County Building to discuss how to handle the flood of voter registration applications. Ball State students will be in attendance as well as 6th District Congressional Candidate Barry Welsh. If you are a BSU student or local citizen, I strongly encourage you to attend this event and make your voice heard.