Are the chips being stacked in the favor for an Andrews, Indiana politician? If you ask the citizens around Huntington County, the answer would depend on the view of the one asked. How did it start, you ask?
In February of this year, Kristopher Underwood (Huntington County GOP Chairman) filed for candidacy for Huntington Township Board. Following procedure, he filed at the Huntington County Clerk's Office. The clerk, Fran Felts, stamped the paperwork and filed it. The file date was Feb. 20, 2010 at 7:35 am. Nobody noticed the problem.
The next day, Ms. Felts admitted that she had changed the date and time to Feb. 19 at 8:08 am. Her answer was that the machine had malfunctioned.
When asked, she was quoted as saying, “Why would I risk my job for this? There is no wrong doing by the Clerk's office.” She went on to say, that the equipment had malfunctioned before, and that the company ' Widmer Time Recorder Company ', of New Jersey, new of the problem and was trying to remedy it. But someone from the company said that a chance of this type of foul up is astronomical.
An investigator from Huntington Daily found that other paper work filed and stamped during the same time period, all had the correct time and date stamps. This led to the calls of foul play by the Clerk's office. After a search through entities by the Better Business Bureau and different State Attorney General offices, as well as recall lists, and the found that no complaints or recalls are listed.
Amazingly, some from the Clerk's office remember Mr. Underwood file one (not two) papers at the time in question. He also filed for Republican state delegate. Amazingly, this paperwork was dated Feb. 19th.
These questions caused the Huntington County Election Board to hold a meeting. The reason was being that the date that was changed, happened to be a day after the filing deadline. The meeting was tentatively set for today at 9 am. The meeting was stopped by recommendation of the Indiana State Election Board.
Ms. Felts was appointed to her position, in 2009, after a vacancy was constituted by Vickie Stoffel. She has served for 30 years, with time including precinct committeeman, president of the Dallas Township Advisory Board, Dallas Township Trustee, and a member of Andrews Town Council. She now seeks reelection.
Ms. Felts is not a stranger to controversy in politics. The position she held before being appointed to her present position, was a position she was appointed to after coming in 6th in a 6 way race for that position. When she was appointed to her current position, her husband filled her vacant spot. She was appointed to her current position under a flag of scrutiny. The former clerk was the wife of the former chief of police, Terry Stoffel (now running for county sheriff). The flack came from the idea that Mayor Updike and his people caused the stepping down of Mrs. Stoffel, allowing Mrs. Felts to be appointed by the same machine that put Mayor Updike in power.
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