Kathy Richardson is right -- the proposal would change the rules in the middle of the game:
The Indiana House is balking at a Senate plan to let Gov. Mitch Daniels appoint a replacement if Secretary of State Charlie White is found ineligible to be elected.
Current law states that if a candidate is ineligible to be on the ballot, the second-place finisher -- in this case, Democrat Vop Osili -- shall be declared the winner. But the Senate amended House Bill 1242, a wide-ranging elections bill, to give the governor power to fill the vacancy.
Rep. Kathy Richardson, R-Noblesville, said the bill troubles her because it would affect an election currently under litigation.
In negotiations with the Senate, she is proposing to let a governor fill vacancies in future elections where the winner is found to have been ineligible -- but not in the case of anyone elected in November 2010, as White was.
But the current law doesn't seem right, either. Letting the one who lost the election take over the office would thwart the will of the majority of voters. A better solution would be some way to put an interim secretary in office -- either selected by the governor or a designated member of the Secretary of State's office -- until a s
