By Joseph Slacian

jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com

WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – Fines against 11 candidates and a political action committee were waived by the Wabash County Election Board on Wednesday morning, Nov. 14.

The fines – which ranged from $250 to $1,000 — were leveled for failure to meet the deadline for filing financial reports with the Wabash County Clerk’s office.

According to Clerk Elaine Martin, candidates and PACS must file the reports depending on the salary for the office one is seeking (at least $5,000) or if a candidate raises or spends more than $500. The deadline for filing was noon Friday, Oct. 19.Candidates who failed to file the paperwork on time faced fines of $50 per day, with a maximum fine of $1,000.

Those candidates who failed to meet the deadline, the numbers of days late and fines were:

County Clerk candidate Lori Draper, 13 days, $650 fine.

County Assessor candidate Kelly Schenkel, 13 days, $650 fine.

County Recorder candidate Eric Rish, 13 days, $650 fine.

Former sheriff’s candidate Walter Woods, 18 days, $900 fine.

Waltz Township Trustee candidate Michael Ruse, 20 days, $1,000 fine.

County Commissioner candidate Jeff Dawes, 22 days, $1,000 fine

Noble Township Trustee candidate Lori Harnish, 21 days, $1,000 fine.

Lagro Township Trustee Eric Terrell, 15 days, $750 fine.

County Council candidate Matt Dillon, 18 days, $900 fine.

Paw Paw Township Trustee Ashley Cordes, 18 days, $900 fine.

MSD School Board candidate Matt Driscoll, 7 days, $350 fine.

Friends of Manchester Schools PAC, 5 days, $250 fine.

Martin said this is the first time in recent memory that such hearings and fines have never been issued.

“As a small county, as a small community, in all the years that I’ve been in the clerk’s office, we’re a small county and we all know each other, for the most part,” she said. “There must really be an interest in filing on time your financial records. whether you’re a candidate, if you’re an elected official for many years or you’re a first time candidate, the general opinion has been it’s not really a big deal.”

At times, she said, opposing candidates may come and look to see if an opponent has filed and who has been contributing to their campaign. That being the case, she said, no one has ever filed a complaint prior to this year.

“In our county we’ve kind of taken a hands-off approach in that it’s really up to the candidate to do what they’re supposed to do,” she said, “and the Indiana Elections Division has always told us for many years that we’re not the police of these type of reports. The last few years they’ve changed their mind. The thinking has been we, as the Election Board, really need to get on candidates. We need to remind them to do the report. We need to send notices when they’re a few days late. Remind them before they’re due. Get on them after they’re due, and start fining them.

“That’s why the statute has been changed to read ‘there shall be a $50 fine’ starting from that very first day.”

Board member Nan Roe said the board doesn’t have a desire to punish people or place a heavy financial burden on people who are willing to file, run and serve their community.

“That being said,” she continued, “we had complaints filed and we had no choice to have this hearing. We don’t make the law. The state election board makes the law. This is not our law. This is something that is mandated to us.”

Every candidate received a packet which spells out who has to file financial papers and when, she noted.

“I would strongly urge present candidates and future candidates to read that material when it’s given to them” Roe said. “We don’t want to have another meeting like this again. We would prefer that this takes care of the matter and we not face this same problem.

“We want candidates that need to file to file. I can’t say that strongly enough.”

Board member Susan Dockter concurred.

“In light of things that are going on nationally, we do want to look at the laws and suggest that they be followed more so in the future,” she said. “Again, we’re a small county. It’s hard to get candidates to run for offices here. We don’t want to set precedent that will certainly discourage people from running for office because we want that to be open to everybody.

“The one thing that we take from the mandate we have from the Indiana State Board of Elections is that the word ‘shall’ is included in the description of fines for candidates or PACs. We’re really looking at that word, ‘shall.’ That means a lot to us, that we get to describe what to do.”

Dillon, who also serves as the Wabash County Republican Party’s vice chair, apologized to the board for his oversight. He also said in the future party leaders plan to remind candidates about the importance of filing, and will remind them several times as the deadline approaches to be sure the paperwork is filled out and filed.

Driscoll, in an email to the board, also apologized for the oversight.

In his previous runs for the school board, Martin said, discussing the email contents, he had never had to fill out such a form because he didn’t spend more than $500 on his campaign.

After hearing from just the two candidates, Roe made a motion to waive the fines “based on the fact the Election Board is given broad latitude on what to do with the fines in terms of enforcing them, reducing them or eliminating them.”

But she added a strong warning that “this should not happen again.”

The board unanimously approved the measure. Martin noted afterward that the vote had to be unanimous, otherwise the fines would have remained in place.

After the meeting, board members said they didn’t believe the fines would set a precedent for other candidates who failed to file the proper paperwork in the future.

“I think that was one of the reasons I wanted to be pretty clear on, that we have never had this happen before where complaints have been filed,” Martin said. “Historically we have looked at it as no one really cares that much. But the election division is putting it on the election board that from now on you’re going to start and you shall do this and you shall do that. I think, going forward, we as a group are hoping that this will remind candidates that this will be taken more seriously.

“It’s taken seriously this time, but we are at a point that when we fine, we may have to stick with that fine. We want to send a pretty strong message to those that fail to do so, as well as the media when you report this, that going forward the election board will look at these and, in all likelihood, will be fining in the future.”

Roe also said, “I hope they understood, at least, my stern warning that we don’t expect this to happen again. We’re being lenient this time, but there is a rule and they’ve been warned.”

Dockter said the only caveat is that the school board candidates don’t run with party affiliation, “so they don’t have the reminder. It will just have to be brought up to them explicitly that there is a law.”