Democrats Condemn Plan To Consolidate Lake County Precincts

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — Democrats say a plan by Republican Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson to consolidate voting precincts in Lake County would suppress the vote in Democratic strongholds.

The plan presented Wednesday eliminates 170 of the county's 523 precincts, including 54 in Gary, 33 in Hammond and 14 in East Chicago. A 2017 state law required Lake County to develop a plan to consolidate voting precincts with fewer than 600 active voters, and when that didn't happen, the task fell to Lawson.

Democratic Lake County Clerk Mike Brown told The (Nothwest Indiana) Times that Lawson's plan hurts the county's north end and "is unacceptable."

Lawson chief of staff Brandon Clifton said the plan puts polling places a little more than a mile from active voters and a quarter mile from public transportation.