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Indiana Secretary of State election, 2014

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Indiana Secretary of State Election
Primary Date:
May 6, 2014
General Election Date:
November 4, 2014
November 4 Election Winner:
Connie Lawson Republican Party
Incumbent prior to election:
Connie Lawson Republican Party
Connie Lawson.jpg
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The Indiana Secretary of State election took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Connie Lawson (R) was first appointed in 2012 and was running for re-election in 2014. She defeated Democratic candidate Beth White and Libertarian Party candidate Karl Tatgenhorst in the election. Lawson won election to her first full four-year term.[1]

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Indiana utilizes an open primary system. Voters are not required to register with a party, but state statutes stipulate that citizens vote in the primary of the party they have voted for most often in the past.[2]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

Candidates

General election

Republican Party Connie Lawson Green check mark transparent.png- Incumbent[3]
Democratic Party Beth White - Marion County Clerk[4]
Libertarian Party Karl Tatgenhorst - Army veteran, IT Director[5]

Results

General election

Secretary of state of Indiana, 2014
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.pngConnie Lawson Incumbent 57.1% 762,223
     Democratic Beth White 39.5% 527,379
     Libertarian Karl Tatgenhorst 3.4% 45,393
Total Votes 1,334,995
Election results via Indiana Secretary of State

Race background

Accusations of election law violations

Connie Lawson (R) and Beth White (D) accused each other of election law violations. White said that Lawson was challenging absentee ballots by voters on the inactive list in two counties.[6] The inactive list kept track of voters who may not have updated information or voted in recent elections. The secretary's office listed 696,407 registered voters as inactive in August and an outreach effort to update addresses only yielded 47,493 responses.[7] White claimed that Lawson used the lists as a pretense for disenfranchising voters.[6]

State Republican Party chairman Tim Berry countered that there had not been official challenges to inactive voter ballots as of October 23. Lawson supporters also leveled criticism at White for distributing campaign mailers without disclaimers required by state law. White stated that the printer made an error with the original document and the campaign subsequently stopped distributions of the mailers.[8]

Past elections

2010

2010 Race for Secretary of State - General Election[9]
Party Candidate Vote Percentage
     Republican Party Approveda Charlie White 57.1%
     Democratic Party Vop Osili 37.0%
     Libertarian Party Mike Wherry 5.9%
Total Votes 1,709,679

Voter turnout

Political scientist Michael McDonald's United States Elections Project studied voter turnout in the 2014 election by looking at the percentage of eligible voters who headed to the polls. McDonald used voting-eligible population (VEP), or the number of eligible voters independent of their current registration status, to calculate turnout rates in each state on November 4. He also incorporated ballots cast for the highest office in each state into his calculation. He estimated that 81,687,059 ballots were cast in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, representing 35.9 percent of the VEP.[10] By comparison, 61.6 percent of VEP voted in the 2008 presidential election and 58.2 percent of VEP voted in the 2012 presidential election.[11]

Quick facts

  • According to PBS Newshour, voter turnout in the 2014 midterms was the lowest since the 1942 midterms, which took place during the nation's involvement in World War II.[12]
  • Forty-three states and the District of Columbia did not surpass 50 percent turnout in McDonald's analysis.
  • The three states with the lowest turnout according to McDonald's analysis were Texas (28.3 percent), Tennessee (28.6 percent), and Indiana (28.8 percent).
  • Maine (58.5 percent), Wisconsin (56.5 percent), and Colorado (54.5 percent) were the three states with the highest turnout.
  • Twelve states increased voter turnout in 2014 compared to the 2010 midterm elections.[13]

Note: Information from the United States Elections Project was last updated on December 16, 2014.

Campaign finance

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of $1,336,390 during the election. This information was last updated on May 13, 2015.[14]

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate Office Result Contributions
Connie Lawson Republican Party Indiana Secretary of State Won $918,386
Beth White Democratic Party Indiana Secretary of State Defeated $412,624
Karl Tatgenhorst Libertarian Party Indiana Secretary of State Defeated $5,380
Grand Total Raised $1,336,390

Key deadlines

Deadline Event
February 7, 2014 Filing deadline
May 6, 2014 Primary election
May 31, 2014 Primary convention, Democratic Party
June 7, 2014 Primary convention, Republican Party
November 4, 2014 General election
November 25 Deadline for State Elections Division to certify general election results
January 1, 2015 Inauguration day for state executive officials in general election

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Indiana + Secretary + State + Election + 2014"

Indiana Secretary of State election, 2014 News Feed

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ New York Times, "Election 2014 – Indiana," accessed November 4, 2014
  2. ↑ Indiana General Assembly, "Indiana Code § 3-10-1-6," accessed August 2, 2024
  3. ↑ Wish TV, "Lawson to run for secretary of state in 2014," April 13, 2012 (dead link)
  4. ↑ WishTV.com, "2014 Race for Secretary of State taking shape," June 6, 2013 (dead link)
  5. ↑ Karl Tatgenhorst for Secretary of State 2014 Official campaign website, "Homepage," accessed May 28, 2014
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Fox 59, "Candidates respond to controversies over mailings, transparency," October 23, 2014
  7. ↑ The Washington Post, "More than half a million Indiana voters are ‘inactive’ and could removed from poll lists if they don’t vote," August 12, 2014
  8. ↑ WISH TV, "Beth White attacks Connie Lawson, admits error," October 22, 2014
  9. ↑ Indiana Secretary of State - 2010 General Election Results
  10. ↑ United States Elections Project, "2014 November General Election Turnout Rates," November 7, 2014
  11. ↑ TIME, "Voter Turnout in Midterm Elections Hits 72-Year Low," November 10, 2014
  12. ↑ PBS, "2014 midterm election turnout lowest in 70 years," November 10, 2014
  13. ↑ U.S. News & World Report, "Midterm Turnout Down in 2014," November 5, 2014
  14. ↑ Follow the Money, "Overview of Indiana 2014 elections," accessed May 13, 2015
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