Thirty-four states have laws that make it a crime to intimidate and/or interfere with election workers, with Indiana joining the pack just last year.
In 2024 the Indiana legislature passed SB 170 which included a provision that makes threatening or intimidating an election worker a Level 6 felony.
Last Wednesday, the Marion County Election Board met, anticipating testimony from Michael John Palombi, an Indianapolis man who flashed two handguns and a knife in a Quaker church on Election Day.
“I didn’t want to have my mind made up before I heard everything, because I feel that that’s my responsibility to hear everything before,” Marion County Circuit Court Clerk and election board secretary, Kate Sweeney Bell said. “If I’m in his shoes, I want somebody sitting where I am to give me a chance so I can be heard.”
Although he and his attorney had negotiated with the board and chose Feb. 27 as the date he would appear, Palombi did not show up. His attorney had notified the board earlier in the day that Palombi would not be giving his account of the incident.
Along with Sweeney Bell, the board meeting included vice chair Jennifer L. Ping and Anne Mullin O’Connor, a proxy for chair of the board Nolita Stewart.
“At this point there’s been an investigation and there’s been opportunity to be heard by the persons involved. Mr. Palombi chose not and told his council not to appear and that was his decision,” Mullin O’Connor said.
The board decided to move forward on the matter and passed four separate motions which alleged Palombi had violated four state election laws. The laws are voter intimidation, I.C. 3-14-3-21.5, electioneering, I.C. 3-14-3-16, obstructing interfering, or injuring an election worker or voter, I.C. 3-14-3-4, and threatening election workers, I.C. 3-14-3-18.
The board will send a referral to the Marion County Prosecutor’s office, who will ultimately decide if Palombi will be charged.
“This is a new law, this is the test, the test case. And we had to get it right,” said Sweeney Bell, commenting on I.C. 3-14-3-18. “It could be zero (charges), up to four, and based on what their office sees, and they’re gonna do their own investigation, there might be more. They could find more (violations).”
On the Nov. 5, 2024 Election Day, Palombi showed up at the First Friends Church polling site wearing a shirt displaying President Donald Trump and a “Make America Great Again” hat. After a poll worker asked Palombi to remove his political attire, a video shows him placing his hat on the worker’s head and removing his shirt, exposing two firearms.
Margo Kelly, who was working as the poll inspector at First Friends and has more than two decades experience as an election worker, was surprised by the incident. Also, she is unsure what will happen with the election board’s referrals.
“We’ve had eccentric voters, like just people that were excited and confused or whatever, but nothing, nothing like this,” Kelly, the polling inspector who called 911 and is credited with keeping the situation from escalating said. “I just feel the way things are going right now, there’s no desire to prosecute people that are, you know, intimidating. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
If Palombi is charged and found guilty of violating Indiana’s new prohibition against threatening or intimidating election workers (I.C. 3-14-3-18) he could face up to two and a half years in prison and pay a fine of up to $10,000.
Kate Breeden is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
