Which Election Board member did Kathy Branham want to fire?

A good friend recently hit the jackpot with a public document request, receiving thousands of emails from the Huntington County Commissioners.  One email exchange that I found very interesting has to do with a conversation between Huntington County Commissioner Kathy Branham and Huntington county HR Director Erika Devine.

The conversation goes like this and takes place September 13-14, 2011:

Download Kathy Branham Erika email

Erika:

The election board is appointed by the county clerk.
Each party recommends an appointment, and Kittie said essentially she doesn’t have a choice and has to appoint who they recommend.

Hope this helps! 

Kathy:

Wonder if Kittie can fire a member & request the party to recommend someone else?  If the Clerk appoints seems like she should have that authority.    

Erika: 

Don't know...

Some serious questions arise from this conversation:

Why is Kathy Branham wanting to know if the Huntington County Clerk can fire an election board member since there is NO jurisdiction from the County Commissioners over the election board?

Did Kathy Branham go on to ask the Huntington County clerk if she would/could fire a member of the Huntington County Election Board?

Which Huntington County Election Board member did she want fired?

Was Kathy Branham trying to influence the election boad vote as set out in state law?

You also need to keep in mind what was happening during this time period.  The Huntington County Election Board was getting set to vote on whether to move from precinct polling places to the "new" voting centers and needed a unanimous vote by the election board to do so.  Huntington County Clerk Kittie Keiffer and the Republican board appointee Lori Guy were in favor of voting centers while the Democrat appointee Michael Clemons was not.  Commissioner Branham was on the record of being in favor but had no say so in the process.  The measure eventually failed.

Comments

[wm]

Gary , Just got off the phone, (3 min phone call), with the attorney for elections at the Sec. of States office for IN. The two appointed members serve at the pleasure of their respective party chairman and can be replaced at a moments notice, (they pod the party chair). The County Clerk has no authority to do anything, but vote, regarding the other members. So, hypothetically, if they want Michael Clemons removed they would have to convince the Dem party Chair to do it.

[Say Goodbye Kathy]

The Branham's have controlled local goverment and politics long enough, they have in past got away with alot, having a Husband as City Attorney (former prosector), Daughter as prosecutor, and last but not least the Queen Bee herself Kathy being former County Council member and now for at least the next 5 months county commissioner. People need to watch her moves in the next few months,she along with her puppy Tom Wall will spend our tax money and create unneeded departments and jobs.

[Tony]

Someone should ask Kathy about her million dollar commission and 6.1 million dollar purchase for 25 county employees while she was on county council.