Munster incident puts focus on voter intimidation cases that can dampen turnout, poll worker participation
Charges are still pending against a Munster man who brought a holstered handgun to a polling place on Election Day and allegedly gestured to it during a verbal altercation with another voter, while experts and party officials are concerned that incidents of voter intimidation can hamper wider participation in the electoral process.
Three days after the incident, police submitted a request for felony charges of bringing a weapon on school grounds against one individual, a two-time failed Republican candidate for Munster Town Council, in the wake of a verbal altercation where the holstered weapon was shown on Nov. 7 outside James B. Eads Elementary School. Misdemeanor charges of intimidation also are being sought against a second individual for his part in the altercation.
A spokesperson for Prosecutor Bernie Carter said the office has received the referral for charges from Munster police and the in-take prosecutors are processing the case.
The ramifications of an incident of perceived voter intimidation can have a ripple effect through the community, according to Purdue Northwest Professor Yu Ouyang, associate professor of political science. He said that, in the strictest sense, actual voter intimidation report numbers are fairly rare.
As in the Munster case, initial charges relate to carrying a weapon on school grounds, not voter intimidation, despite the allegations the man with the gun was calling voters who identified as Democrats outside the polling place names, including Communists, Marxists and pedophiles.
Ouyang said concern is not with documented confirmed cases of voter intimidation, but more the impact of the news of incidents such as the situation on Election Day in Munster that can impact future political participation, Ouyang said.
“Many voters are skeptical to participate as is. When you hears stories of such incidents occurring it puts an added layer.
“Thankfully, I’m not hearing many instances of these. Despite it being a fairly rare occurrence, they still matter quite a bit. The most important part is how the local party leaders respond to this. There should be zero tolerance in cases of voter intimidation, especially when the one involved was working for a party on Election Day,” Ouyang said.
“The responses by candidates and the party really sort of drive how this will go in the future. Anything short of a very strong response against such behavior is tacitly approval and it is not what we want to see,” he said.
This does not directly connect with this particular incident on school grounds as there are already laws against guns on school property.
“If we are not talking about a church or schools used as a polling place, it becomes a concern with potential voters see someone carry a firearm ... it feels like intimidation,” Ouyang said.
In an attempt to stave off potential incidents that potentially could arise at polling places in the wake of the legislature’s 2022 passage of permitless concealed carry, State Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, introduced his own legislation seeking to ban weapons in all polling places.
That measure was assigned to the committee on corrections and criminal law, where it did not receive a hearing. Randolph plans to reintroduce the legislation this short session.
“It’s an immediate issue. Now I will be able to bring to them a current example and shoe them the importance of doing it,” Randolph said.
Guns at polling places frighten people, especially senior citizens, he said. For many there are already enough issues getting to a polling place.
“It defies common sense,” Randolph said.
Randy Niemeyer, chairman of the Lake County Republican Central Committee, said the county party does not sanction volunteers or tell them necessarily to bring their weapons anywhere. He said a responsible gun owner always knows it is illegal to carry on school grounds, Niemeyer said.
“We do not condone that type of behavior at any time. We will not stand for that behavior. It’s indescribable how bad this is,” Niemeyer said.
Volunteers outside polling places can attempt to engage voters to support a candidate or party but when a voter indicates they are not interested, should simply leave the individual alone, he said, as there is no room for harassment.
Niemeyer said the alleged behavior on Election Day goes against the party’s brand.
“Let’s engage voters in a productive manner and not get in altercations,” Niemeyer said.
Still, individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty and there needs to be time to allow the legal system to work, he continued.
Once the charges have worked their way through the judicial process, Niemeyer said they will consider whether there will be party consequences. If the charges result in a felony conviction, the man would be unable to hold office in Indiana.
“We don’t welcome felons in our party. We are looking for ambitious, smart, law-abiding citizens who will make the sacrifices,” Niemeyer said.
Jim Wieser, chairman of Lake County’s Democratic Party, said the potential for polling place intimidation and violence has concerned him and other leaders in the party since the 2020 election. The denial of the legitimacy of that election and the resulting disinformation and inflammatory rhetoric have created an atmosphere where people are using vile language and demeaning average voters. The trend has been encouraged throughout Lake County, he said.
“Tuesday was particularly vindictive and almost out of control in Munster,” Wieser said. “People were verbally accosted at polling places.”
Those identifying as Democrat were accused of being a communist or a Marxist or a pedophile, he said.
“What does that give rise to?” he asked. “When you have a state that allows carrying a weapon and you don’t have to have a permit to acquire one, it just creates the atmosphere for something terrible to happen. This incident is a specific reflection of that. I thank God it didn’t go farther than it did.”
“It’s horrifying for people who are exercising their right to vote — a basic fundamental principle of democracy — to have to be subjected to that, to observe that or be aware of that,” Wieser said.
The potential for violence like this may cause people to reconsider whether they want to go to their polling place, Wieser said, comparing it to an individual saying they do not want to go to a nightclub out of fear in the aftermath of mass shootings.
“It’s so beyond what I can even comprehend given all the years I’ve been involved in government and politics. It’s not how it used to be. That’s why I have so much admiration for poll workers. In the face of all that they are still willing to do their jobs,” Wieser said.
“We won’t have a system if this continues and it ramps up,” Wieser said.
“It’s hard to believe knowing the nature of the town of Munster and knowing the vast majority of the people are law abiding citizens, for this to happen in that community having been instigated by a few. It’s a really, sad, sad day for Lake County and a sad day certainly for Munster,” Wieser said.
“That language, all the vitriol, emanates from the Republican Party. It’s unfortunate but true. That’s the case. They need to look inside themselves and say we need to do something about this,” Wieser said.
