Virginia resident and Indiana Republican Sen. Dick Lugar will be allowed to vote in the state he represents, after all.
The local elections board had ruled Lugar and his wife ineligible to vote because they actually live in McLean, Va., having moved out of the Hoosier State 35 years ago when Lugar came to Congress. Lugar had continued to use the Indiana address of the home he sold at the time.
But Friday, lawyers for the Marion County Election Board and the veteran senator cut a deal resolving a complaint brought by opponents, the Indianapolis Star reported.
Lugar will be able to vote as long as he registers from the address of a farm his family owns in Marion County.
While the legal issues for Lugar may be resolved, there is still the political issue of living out of state, and Lugar's campaign tried to address that by arguing he's been abiding by the advice of state and local officials all along. If the issue is pressed further, it will represent "continued pettiness on the part of a handful of disgruntled political opponents," campaign spokesman Andy Fisher said in a statement.
Here is the campaign's statement:
March 30, 2012 - Throughout his Senate career, Senator and Mrs. Lugar have relied upon the legal guidance of the Marion County Election Board, the Marion County Voter Registration Board, and the offices of three Indiana Attorneys General that their voter registration was proper and legal. This has been completely unchallenged throughout the years and only in the course of this campaign has it been pushed by his political challengers for mischievous purposes. There has never been a question that Sen. and Mrs. Lugar are, and have been, residents of Indiana and Marion County.
Today, the court has obtained from the Marion County Election Board assurances that the Lugars may vote from the Lugar family farm which has been in the family for generations and has been managed by Senator Lugar continuously for many years, and this is now where they should vote.
With this new legal guidance the issue of the Lugars' voting registration is resolved. Any further challenge will clearly be nothing more than continued pettiness on the part of a handful of disgruntled political opponents.