Affeldt v. Whitcomb

319 F. Supp. 69, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9811
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedOctober 20, 1970
DocketCiv. 70 H 220
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 319 F. Supp. 69 (Affeldt v. Whitcomb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Affeldt v. Whitcomb, 319 F. Supp. 69, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9811 (N.D. Ind. 1970).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND JUDGMENT ORDER

ESCHBACH, District Judge.

This is alleged to be a class action, challenging the constitutionality of the Indiana six-month durational residence requirement for voting, filed on September 25, 1970. Plaintiffs pray for injunctive relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2202, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and for' declaratory relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201. A statutory three-judge district court was convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2284. This order contains the findings of fact and conclusions of law of the court after hearing evidence on October 13, 1970. *71 We grant the relief prayed for, but limit it to the named plaintiffs.

Having brought this action by way of a class action under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, plaintiffs define the class which they seek to represent as “those residents of the State of Indiana who will have lived in the State for less than six months on the day of the next following general or city election.” In other words, plaintiffs seek relief only on behalf of interstate movers who will have lived in Indiana for less than six months on the day of the next following general or city election.

The facts of this case can be summarized as follows. Plaintiffs, Don Affeldt and Cordell Affeldt, arrived and moved into their present residence in Valparaiso, Indiana, on May 29, 1970. Don Affeldt had previously executed his employment contract with Valparaiso University in April 1970, agreeing to begin teaching on September 1, 1970. Cordell Affeldt also executed a teaching contract with Duneland School Corporation of Chesterton, Indiana, in April 1970 and agreed to begin teaching on August 28, 1970. Don Affeldt is presently an assistant professor of law and philosophy at Valparaiso University, and Cordell Affeldt is a fifth grade teacher. Defendants include the following officials: Edgar D. Whitcomb, Governor of Indiana; Theodore Sendak, Attorney General of Indiana; John B. King 1 and Thurman M. DeMoss, members of the Indiana State Election Board; John W. Ruge clerk of the circuit court of Porter County, Indiana, and ex officio registration officer of that county; and John M. Lyons and John H. Howell, members of the Porter County Election Board.

Plaintiff Don Affeldt went to the office of defendant Ruge on September 18, 1970 and asked to be permitted to register to vote in the upcoming general election on November 3, 1970. Since plaintiffs arrived in Valparaiso on May 29, 1970 and would therefore not meet the six-month durational residence period required by Ind.Stat.Ann. § 29-3426 (Burns’ Repl.1969) and Ind.Const. art. 2, § 2 in order for an Indiana resident to be qualified to vote, defendant Ruge refused to allow Don Affeldt to register. Ruge further explained that the six-month requirement applied to elections for United States Senate and House of Representatives as well as for state and local elections. Finally, Ruge told Affeldt that there was no provision for appealing his decision. A similar meeting between Ruge and plaintiff Cordell Affeldt took place on September 21, 1970. Other than the six months durational residency requirement, plaintiffs have apparently met all other qualifications in order to vote in the upcoming election.

Plaintiffs next requested by letter dated September 21, 1970 that a hearing be conducted before the Porter County Election Board; a hearing was held on September 24, 1970 pursuant to their request but in their absence, and the Board determined that it had no jurisdiction to review Ruge’s decision. The Board also ruled that since Ind.Stat.Ann. § 29-3401 (Burns’ Repl.1969) provides that it is unlawful for any person to vote at any general election in Indiana unless he is a registered voter at the time of such election, the Board would allow plaintiffs to vote only under court order. Plaintiffs have therefore exhausted their administrative remedies.

It is plaintiffs’ contention that the six months durational residence requirement of § 29-3426 and Ind.Const. art. 2, § 2 violates their freedom to travel, freedom of political association, and right to vote for United States Senator and Representative ; in addition, plaintiffs contend that they have been denied due process of law, equal protection of the laws, and privileges and immunities as citizens of the United States as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Indiana *72 Constitution provides for qualifications of electors as follows:

In all elections not otherwise provided for by this Constitution, every citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty-one years and upwards, who shall have resided in the State during the six months, and in the township sixty days, and in the ward or precinct thirty days immediately preceding such election, shall be entitled to vote. * * * Ind.Const. art. 2, § 2. (Emphasis added.)

Ind.Stat.Ann. § 29-3426 (Burns’ Repl. 1969) provides in part that:

Every person who will be at least twenty-one [21] years of age at the next ensuing general or city election, who is a citizen of the United States, who, if he continues to reside in the precinct until the next following general or city election, will at that time, have resided in the state of Indiana six [ff] months, in the township sixty [60] days and the precinct thirty [30] days, shall be entitled, upon proper application, to be registered in such precinct. (Emphasis added.)

Plaintiffs contend that Indiana may not discriminate against residents who are recent arrivals from outside Indiana. While plaintiffs state that they do not challenge the right of Indiana to establish reasonable standards of residence, 2 they do contest its right to establish in the above statutory and constitutional provisions a six-month durational residence requirement which cannot be shown to achieve any of the objectives purportedly furthered by such a requirement. Plaintiffs describe Indiana’s six-month durational residence requirement as an “irrebuttable presumption of ineligibility.”

By way of relief, plaintiffs seek the following:

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Bluebook (online)
319 F. Supp. 69, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/affeldt-v-whitcomb-innd-1970.