Allisonville voters divided over Bayh dynasty and wording of bail question
Retirees joined couples with strollers and professionals carrying briefcases Tuesday afternoon at the Allisonville Christian Church, where the line of several dozen voters snaked outside and onto the sidewalk.
The church, located 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of downtown Indianapolis, attracted voters with very different views on the race for secretary of state leading the election.
Republican Max Engling, Democrat Beau Bayh, Libertarian Lauri Shillings and Lincoln Party independent Greg Ballard are competing to run Indiana’s elections.
“I’m tired of the Bayhs,” said Art, who declined to give his last name. He and his wife Anne were critical of Beau Bayh’s ties to Indiana and suspected he would use state office as a political springboard.
The couple said they supported Engling, despite similar criticism that he — a member of Sen. Jim Banks — also hadn’t lived enough in Indiana.
“That Engling guy, he just looks pretty scary,” Libby Boulais said.
“I completely agree with that,” said his companion, Jan Robbins. “I just think the Bayh family story has always been something that I’ve always approved of, and I don’t see any reason to think that it’s going to contradict anything.”
Boulais said she was normally “not a partisan” but began aligning herself more with the Democratic Party in 2016, with President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party.
She viewed the midterm elections as a referendum on Trump, despite his absence from the ballot.
It “really feels like we are moving toward a fascist government instead of our democracy that our country was founded on,” she said.
But there were areas of agreement, such as on the complex wording of a proposed amendment to the Indiana Constitution.
Public Question No. 1 would expand the offenses for which judges can deny bail, beyond the current crimes of murder or treason.
“The way it was written was really confusing,” Boulais said. She asked the long question in ChatGPT and asked him to break the question down for her “like I was five.”
“The way it reads, you say to yourself: Do I say yes or do I say no? Anne said, as Art interjected, “Doesn’t that always leave it to the judge?”
Gn usa
