WTWO: “Rebecca Coleman, the candidate who won Vigo County’s Auditor race in the Nov. 3 election, has agreed that she is ineligible to hold office. According to a Vigo County court filing, Coleman came to that determination after consulting with her counsel. She ‘determined that she cannot successfully defend herself against the representations in Petitioner’s Amended Verified Petition to Contest Election,’ Judge Lakshmi Reddy’s court order read in part.”
“As a result, her opponent in the race, Democrat James Bramble, will continue in his position as Vigo County Auditor. As Judge Reddy’s order read in part, ‘due to her ineligibility the second highest vote getter being, James W. (Jim) Bramble, would be the duly elected Auditor of Vigo County and would be eligible to assume said office.’ Coleman was initially declared the winner with 22,152 votes, or 53% of the vote. On Nov. 12, Bramble, the current Vigo County Auditor, and his lawyer Bill Smock filed a petition claiming that Coleman was ineligible to hold the office due to two past felony convictions dating back to the late ’90s. According to Smock, Indiana law states that a convicted felon cannot hold public office.”