An Update on Mike Marshall

Many viewers have contacted us to ask for an update on Mike Marshall, one of the two principal subjects in the Indiana section of ELECTORAL DYSFUNCTION and chair of Jennings County Democrats’ get-out-the-vote effort in 2008. As chronicled in the film, Mike was indicted in 2011 on 45 felony counts of voter fraud, forgery, and perjury relating to the 2010 election. Early in 2013, he entered a plea agreement whereby 42 of the counts were dismissed in exchange for him pleading guilty to three counts. The three counts concern applications for absentee ballots that Mike allegedly filled out for his son, his brother, and a former roommate. There was no allegation that these three ballots were actually cast.

In May 2013, Judge Jon Webster of Jennings Circuit Court sentenced Mike to 18 months in prison for each count, to be served concurrently. The judgment states that nine months of the sentence will be suspended, and Mike, who entered prison in May of 2013, served four and a half months in prison. After Mike’s release and following a period of probation, the felony charges were reduced to misdemeanors.

Jennings County Democratic Party Chair Karen Snyder, who appears in ELECTORAL DYSFUNCTION, told the North Vernon Plain Dealer-Sun that Mike’s decision on the plea agreement was a difficult one: “Sooner or later,” Snyder said, “you have to weigh the cost of continuing the legal fight because it can become extremely expensive. Unless you’re wealthy, you sometimes have to compromise what you’d like to do.”

Jennings County Republican Party Chair Mark Holwager applauded the verdict, arguing that Marshall deserved prison time. “Any time a person steals a vote or disenfranchises a voter, he should get some time,” Holwager told the Plain Dealer-Sun. Despite entering the plea agreement, Mike maintains his innocence on all charges.

A legal defense fund was established to help defray the legal costs that Mike has incurred. Contributions to this fund can be made online at http://mmldf.blogspot.com or sent via check to:

Mike Marshall Legal Defense Fund
P.O. Box 1109
North Vernon, IN 47265

In his review of ELECTORAL DYSFUNCTION, Los Angeles Times film critic Gary Goldstein had this to say about Mike’s case:

“Rocca wryly, yet respectfully, follows the hard-driving efforts of Jennings County Democrat Mike Marshall and Ripley County Republican Dee Dee Benkie as the engaging opponents pull out the stops to help ensure their party’s win. It’s a generally fair and balanced snapshot of Tip O’Neill’s assertion, ‘All politics is local.’ … But it’s the shocking, follow-up news of Marshall’s 2011 grand jury indictment on 45 felony counts allegedly related to his voter registration work (he claims innocence and political witch-hunting) that hammers home America’s red-blue rancor and closes the film on a vital note of gravitas.”