Voting is critical

Voting is important.
Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson brought that message to Jay County Republicans on Thursday at their Lincoln Day banquet, emphasizing the necessity of getting citizens to the polls and her efforts to eliminate voter fraud.
She also advocated for financial literacy through the Indiana MoneyWise program.
To illustrate the importance of each vote, Lawson told the story of DeKalb County farmer Henry Shoemaker, whose vote, after an appeal, broke a tie in favor of Madison Marsh in a race for state representative in 1842. Marsh later cast the deciding vote to elect Edward A. Hannegan to the U.S. Senate, and Hannegan in 1846 did the same in voting to declare war on Mexico.
The result of the Mexican-American War was the acquisition of land that became Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California and parts of four other states.
“So, as a result, Henry Shoemaker’s vote caused the largest expansion of our borders since the Louisiana Purchase,” said Lawson. “Remember, every vote counts.”
She also reminded local Republicans that municipal elections being held this year are important because city and town officials are in charge of plowing snow and fixing potholes.
Lawson, who served in the Indiana Senate for 16 years before becoming Secretary of State in 2012, also touted her efforts to eliminate fraud by cleaning the state’s voter rolls.
She noted that Pew Research Center has found that more than 10 percent of information on rolls is inaccurate and about 2.7 million voters are registered in multiple states. Those issues, she said, create opportunity for voter fraud, specifically in the form on absentee ballots.
As an example, she cited Mike Marshall, who in 2011 was charged with 45 felony counts of voter fraud, forgery and perjury in the 2010 election in Jennings County. He later pleaded guilty to three of those counts for filling out ballots for family members.
“That’s why it’s so important that our state voter rolls are accurate and clean,” said Lawson, noting that Indiana voter rolls are now scheduled to be cleaned every two years.
“It’s the inaccurate voter information and the absentee ballots that have become the avenue of the opportunity for scam artists. And they prey on names that remain on our voter rolls that are no longer accurate.”
Lawson added that she’s passionate about financial literacy because it helps protect citizens from scam artists of another sort.
She explained that 6,000 students in Indiana were given a test about economic resources, with 62 percent failing. She also said 41 percent of U.S. grade themselves a C, D or F in terms of personal finance knowledge.
Lawson explained that she’s made efforts to teach seniors citizens about protecting investments and savings from fraud as well as high school students about compound interest and the importance of credit scores. She encouraged citizens to visit http://www.IndianaMoneyWise.com to learn more about personal finance and investing.