By Bill Dolan

HAMMOND | Early voting satellite centers in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago will remain open following a Wednesday ruling in Lake County Superior Court.

Judge Diane Kavadias-Schneider struck down Republican efforts to have the satellite voting locations deemed illegal and shut down and hundreds of votes cast in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago be voided.

The judge granted a petition by Democrats and the United Steelworkers union to keep the sites open on grounds the centers provide better access to early voting to minority communities, which don't have the time or transportation to reach the early voting center in Crown Point.

"If early voting was not offered in the cities of Gary, Hammond and East Chicago, the voters in those communities would be the only voters in Indiana who would not by able to vote at a courthouse located in their city of residence," she states in her ruling, which was handed down just before noon.

She denied a petition by the Lake County Republican Party to close voting in those Democratic strongholds because of the potential for vote fraud.

Kavadias-Schneider stated in her ruling, "Regrettably, Lake County has had a history of public corruption and voter fraud," but not enough to warrant disenfranchising voters in the county's three biggest cities.

She ruled that in-person voting is protected by "the strictest voting requirement in all 50 states."

Voters must produce state-issued photo identification and are checked through the state voter registration database. The judge said the database is an added safeguard at the early voting centers that isn't available at Election Day precinct polling places.

She also ruled there have been no reported incidents of vote fraud since the early voting opened Oct. 14 in those cities.

She agreed with arguments offered by Democrats and the United Steelworkers union that voting centers in those three cities offer better access to minorities, which don't have the time or transportation to reach the only other early voting center in suburban Crown Point.

"There is a high probability that if early voting locations did no exist in the cities of Gary, Hammond and East Chicago, many residents of those cities would not vote," she ruled. "The balance of hardships weigh heavily in favor of maintaining the status quo and allowing early voting to continue.

Republicans are expected to appeal the ruling.

U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, who took advantage of early voting at the Gary site, said, "I am pleased by the judge’s ruling to keep satellite early voting centers open in Lake County and make sure that early votes count. In these difficult economic times, it is good that people don’t have to add getting to the polls on Election Day to their long list of worries."