WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:14 — 7.5MB)
The man responsible for elections in Indiana has been convicted of vote fraud and removed from office due to this criminal conviction. On Saturday, Charlie White was convicted of six class D felonies: three counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of theft. He could face six months to three years in prison on each of the counts.
White was acquitted of the most serious charge, fraud on a financial institution, a class C felony. The charges stemmed from White’s, as it turns out, fraudulent residence claim on his voter registration during his campaigning for secretary of state in late 2009 and 2010. He used his ex-wife’s address on the east side of Fishers. He apparently did this, in part, to be able to legally retain his seat on and salary from Fishers Town Council. At the time, he actually lived in a townhouse outside of the district boundary. Soon afterward, Governor Daniels announced that he had appointed Jerry Bonnet, White’s chief deputy, as interim secretary of state. Daniels was given this authority when the state election board, composed of two Republicans and two Democrats, failed to get a majority vote to remove White from office and replace him with the runner-up, Democrat Vop Osili. Daniels stated that he didn’t make a permanent appointment in case White’s conviction is reduced to a misdemeanor, in which case Daniels would re-instate him to his position. White announced that he plans to ask a judge to reduce his convictions to misdemeanors at his sentencing hearing, the date of which has not been announced. Correspondent David Murphy spoke with Indiana Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson today regarding White’s conviction, she begins by expressing disappointment in his criminal actions, in this WFHB feature exclusive.
