Steady turnout greets lone day of on-campus voting at Purdue
Plus, an update from Day 6 of the Delphi murders trial of Richard Allen. And Tippecanoe County issues a burn ban.
This edition is sponsored by the Purdue Presidential Lecture Series. Join Purdue Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. in Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse for a captivating conversation with Nobel laureate and renowned theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek. A 2004 Nobel Prize winner and intellectual adventurer, Wilczek’s groundbreaking work has shaped our understanding of quantum physics, dark matter and the forces that govern the universe. This event is free and open to the public with a general admission ticket. Learn more and reserve your seat: https://www.purdue.edu/president/lecture-series/a-conversation-with-frank-wilczek/.
STEADY TURNOUT GREETS LONE DAY OF ON-CAMPUS VOTING AT PURDUE
A line of voters more than 100 deep greeted the opening of an early voting site Thursday morning at the Purdue Co-Rec gyms, the lone on-campus polling place – whether early or on Election Day Nov. 5 – this election cycle.
By the end of six hours of voting, 1,312 voters cast ballots at the Co-Rec, putting it in the lead for the most voters at a single site in Tippecanoe County since early voting started Oct. 8, according to the county election office.
“Today’s early vote totals at the Co-Rec clearly demonstrate why we need an Election Day voting center on Purdue’s campus,” said Lisa Dullum, a Tippecanoe County Council member who had been critical of initial county Election Board schedules that had no polling places on campus.
Amid pressure and accusations of voter suppression – the absence of a polling place on campus would have been a first in a presidential election year dating to the start of the county’s use of vote centers in 2007 – Purdue and county election officials worked through issues of state-mandated available parking and dedicated internet service to set up the day of early voting at Co-Rec.
“I mean, it only makes sense,” Jason Hughes, a Purdue sophomore, said after casting his ballot. “Look at this place. ... I didn’t want to take the chance that there won’t be time when the election actually happens.”
Election Day vote centers will include one at West Lafayette City Hall, about three blocks from the eastern edge of campus. But there won’t be one on campus.
Monday morning, Purdue officials sent a letter to the campus community saying that “we measured the walking time between the center of campus and the West Lafayette City Hall voting center next to campus: a two-minute-longer walk than to the Co-Rec.”
The letter said Purdue Student Life would offer golf cart rides to City Hall for students who need mobility assistance on Election Day. Students also have access to free CityBus routes to vote centers in West Lafayette and Lafayette.
That didn’t stave off some of the lingering frustration about having a single option – one that had to be wrangled late in the game – for the campus community.
On Monday, the faculty-led University Senate passed a resolution calling on the university to either cancel classes or have professors decline to give quizzes or exams on Election Day so students have time to navigate lines and vote.
Before the polling place opened Thursday, a group of voter access advocates marched from the Purdue gateway at Grant Street and Mitch Daniels Boulevard to the Co-Rec, looking to drum up attention for the voting site.
“This has to be the highest population density of voters in the county, here on campus, when you take in all the faculty and staff with the students,” Susan Schechter, a Fairfield Township Board member who was in the march, said. “You have to ask why there isn’t more voter access here on campus.”
Randy Vonderheide, president of the three-member Election Board, was at the Co-Rec when the doors opened and lines filled cordoned off chutes leading to 24 vote machines set up in the gym.
“My instincts tell me we’ll come back over here,” Vonderheide said about future presidential and mid-term elections. “But I want to see how the numbers are at this location compared to the others. … But it appears that Purdue's delivered on everything they told us that they would deliver. I thank them for that.”
On Thursday, voting remained steady at the Tippecanoe County Office Building in downtown Lafayette, with 1,177 voters.
Since early voting started Oct. 8, 15,778 voters had cast a ballot, so far. That compares with 12,466 in 2016; and 20,071 in 2020 at the same stage in early voting, according to the county election office.
ADDITIONAL EARLY VOTE SITES THIS WEEK: Here are the options this week to vote ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St., Lafayette
Saturday, Oct. 26:
9 a.m.-1 p.m., West Point Fire Station, 4949 Indiana 25 S., West Point
9 a.m.-1 p.m., Otterbein United Methodist Church, 405 Oxford St., Otterbein
9 a.m.-1 p.m., Clarks Hill Christian Church, 9510 Pearl St., Clarks Hill
9 a.m.-4 p.m., Tippecanoe County Office Building, 20 N. Third St., Lafayette;
For more about finding what races are on your ballot, candidate Q&As and a complete list of where to vote on or before Nov. 5, check this voter guide.
DELPHI MURDERS TRIAL: DAY 6 UPDATE
Thursday was the first time that attention in the testimony turned directly to Richard Allen, the 52-year-old man charged in the 2017 murders of eighth-graders Abby Williams and Libby German near the town’s Monon High Bridge Trail. Prosecutors called a series of witnesses tied to the investigation to deal with how attention turned to Allen in 2022, more than five years after the murders.
(This is pulled from media pool reports Thursday inside Carroll Circuit Court, including a morning testimony recap by Donnie Burgess with WIBC radio in Indianapolis.)
Allen was interviewed by investigators within one week of the murders and originally labeled “cleared,” according to testimony Thursday.
Kathy Shank, retired Department of Child Services worker, found Allen’s 2017 discussion with Capt. Dan Dulin with the Department of Natural Resources. Shank was volunteering to help with administrative duties having to do with file management. She testified to handling around 14,000 tips related to the Delphi murders investigation.
Shank testified that she stumbled upon a folder that was not with the others that she was tasked with managing. That folder was labeled “Richard Allen Whiteman.”
This individual, later corrected to Richard Allen, reported being on the trails during the day of February 13th, 2017, when Abby and Libby are said to have gone missing and then killed, according to the State’s timeline. Shank alerted Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett, at the time the lead investigator, of the file. The file was labeled “cleared.”
Shank could not answer why the file incorrectly listed the name “Richard Allen Whiteman.”
Dulin testified to being assigned with assisting investigators with any leads after the murders took place. Allen and Dulin agreed to meet at the Save-A-Lot parking lot on Feb. 18, 2017. Allen denied the idea of conducting the interview at his home or a police station, Dulin testified.
Allen reported he lived on Whiteman Street and that he “self-reported” he was in the area of the Monon High Bridge between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2017. Allen later corrected that timeframe to 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., but claimed he wasn’t really paying attention to anything on the trail.
Dulin said Allen reported seeing three girls, but he was more focused on watching the stock ticker on his phone. Dulin testified that Allen also confirmed he parked near the Hoosier Harvestore, which is on County Road 300 North near a trailhead for the Monon High Bridge Trail.
Dulin testified that the conversation lasted around 10 minutes and that he typed up the notes in his car and filed the Word document into “the system.” Dulin testified to never thinking about the conversation again until he was contacted by investigators in 2022 after Shank found Allen’s file.
Dulin testified to going into DNR files in 2022 to see if there was anything more that he could find relating to Allen, which led to the discovery of Allen’s fishing license application. Allen had reported a change of height from 5 foot 4 inches tall to 5 foot 6 inches tall. Dulin found that change unusual.
Dulin also testified to collecting information off of Richard Allen’s phone in 2017 but did not look at the contents.
The end of testimony Tuesday revealed the state of Indiana collected 23 electronic devices from Allen when he was arrested. Nothing relating back to the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German was found on those devices. Allen’s phone from 2017 was apparently not included with those devices as he no longer had it.
During cross-examination, Dulin confirmed he did not ask Allen what he was wearing on Feb. 13, 2017, and that he doesn’t know who changed Allen’s height on his fishing license application. Dulin also confirmed he was the person who told police to go collect the blood-covered sticks from the crime scene weeks later.
Dulin also testified that it would not be uncommon to find ammunition in the woods. Allen’s defense team has been trying to build grounds for reasonable doubt by pointing to several other potential sources for the .40 caliber unspent cartridge found near the bodies of Abby and Libby – one that was critical to charges when Allen was arrested in October 2022.
In the afternoon session, former Delphi Police Chief Steve Mullin testified that he was called by Tony Liggett, now the Carroll County sheriff and then a detective with the sheriff’s office, on Sept. 21, 2022, about following up on Allen. Mullin said he checked security video footage from the Hoosier Harvestore and saw at 2016 Ford Focus driving by at 1:27 p.m. Feb. 13, 2017. Mullin testified that he didn’t see a license plate but believed the car was one owned by Allen.
Mullin testified that during an Oct. 13, 2022, interview at Allen’s house, Allen told him he’d been wearing military-style boots, a Carhartt jacket, blue jeans and a skull cap that day and that he’d gone to the trail that day to look at the fish from the Monon High Bridge. Mullin testified that at one point during the conversation, Allen became agitated and left the room.
Mullin testified that when he showed Allen a picture of the Bridge Guy, “his response was, ‘If the picture was taken with the girl’s camera, there was no way it could be him.” Mullin testified that police got a search warrant for Allen’s house after that.
During cross-examination, Andrew Baldwin, one of Allen’s attorneys, challenged Mullin on what the security video of County Road 300 North showed and whether he could be sure the car he identified was Allen’s.
Liggett testified that the search of Allen’s home turned up Sig Sauer .40 caliber handgun in a nightstand. Prosecutors have tied an unspent round found at the crime scene with that gun. Liggett testified that the search came up with another .40 caliber round, the same brand, in a keepsake box on a dresser. Investigators also found a blue Carhartt jacket in Allen’s home.
Brad Rozzi, one of Allen’s attorneys, questioned Liggett about the timing of the search, coming as Liggett was running for sheriff – a position that would roughly double his salary. Rozzi asked him whether he’d ever thought about how an arrest would benefit him.
“It was never about me, it was about murders of two girls,” Liggett said.
According to media reports inside the courtroom, Liggett said he’d watched video shot by Libby hundreds of time. Prosecutors played an enhanced version of the video in court, with Liggett testifying about what he heard as the camera focused at first on Abby, as a man approaches.
Abby: “Is he right here? Don’t leave me up here.”
Libby: “See this is the path. That be a gun. There is no path here. We have to go down here.”
Bridge Guy: “Guys.”
Girls: “Hi.”
Bridge Guy: “Down the hill.”
Liggett testified that Allen “got lost in the cracks” of the investigation from 2017 to 2022. He said someone put “clear” on the tip. “It shouldn’t have been,” Liggett said.
Asked by Rozzi if he believed Allen acted alone in the case, Liggett said yes. He testified he didn’t think anyone else was there, but off frame, in the video shot by Libby German at the end of the Monon High Bridge. He agreed with Rozzi that there was no DNA evidence connecting Allen to the crime. Liggett said that witnesses who saw Bridge Guy on the trail on Feb. 13, 2017, described him a little bit different but that he believes they’re credible witnesses.
Indiana State Police Lt. Jerry Holeman testified that he sat in a car with Allen during an Oct. 13, 2022, search of his home. Holeman said that when he asked Allen if he wanted to fill out a form for damaged items during the search, he said Allen told him: “It doesn’t matter, it’s over.”
THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …
BURN BAN ORDERED TIPPECANOE COUNTY: Tippecanoe County commissioners issued a burn ban, as dry conditions continue. The restrictions went into effect immediately and include:
A ban on open burning, including campfires and recreational fires, unless contained within a fire ring of specified dimensions (23 inches in diameter by 10 inches high or larger).
Grills: The use of grills fueled by charcoal or propane is permitted, though charcoal must remain in the grill until fully extinguished.
The burning of debris, including timber and vegetation from construction activities, is banned.
Tippecanoe County joins 40 other counties, including all surrounding counties, with some sort of burn ban, according to the state Department of Homeland Security.
GOVERNOR CANDIDATES’ FINAL DEBATE: From Indiana Capital Chronicle’s Whitney Downard: “U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican, fended off attacks from both Democrat Jennifer McCormick and Libertarian Donald Rainwater in the final gubernatorial debate of the election season Thursday night. … McCormick joined in by repeatedly tying Braun to the ultraconservative views of his running mate, Micah Beckwith, a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist. In a media avail following the debate, McCormick defended the tactic, noting that the 70-year-old Braun would be the state’s oldest governor if elected, putting Beckwith ‘one heartbeat away’ from the office. ‘We’ve not had such an extreme candidate in that position that I can remember in my adult life … he’s also clearly calling the shots. Let’s just call it what it is: this isn’t the Braun-Beckwith ticket, this is the Beckwith-Braun ticket,’ McCormick said.” For the full report: “Gubernatorial candidates debate for the last time before Election Day.”
Thanks for sponsorship help with this edition from Purdue Presidential Lecture Series, presenting Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, in Stewart Center’s Loeb Playhouse. Learn more and reserve your seat: https://www.purdue.edu/president/lecture-series/a-conversation-with-frank-wilczek/.
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How excellent that Purdue University community members took advantage of the early voting option. I'm sure that the Purdue spirit of civic engagement will be just as strong on election day, whatever the polling site. I mean, voting is the ultimate "hammer down" moment.
The thieves and criminals are alive and well in West Lafayette! They stole my Harris and Walz sign from my side yard close to my house. The bastard was to stupid to take the McCormick sign = doesn’t know who she is!