The Times from Munster, Indiana • 6

PAGE 6 I SECTION A I WEST I THE TIMES I WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2003 ELECTION 2003 2 No vote fraud pall cast over election City Council candidate. Wieser said that translator was moved to a different council district According to Wieser, about 2,000 absentee ballots were cast this election. "I haven't had a complaint today about absentee ballots. All the complaints have been at the polls," Wieser said. Bruce Lambka, Republican attorney for the election board, said there didn't seem to be an inordinate amount of complaints.

"There was some electioneering and confusion on the part of people of what procedures are, but nothing unusual," Lambka said. erate fewer complaints than primary elections. Wieser said as with any election, the majority of complaints concern improper electioneering. "We've sent people out, and generally speaking, everyone Wieser said. On Friday, the Lake County election board was ordered by a federal judge to put bilingual translators in all 32 East Chicago precinct polling places to comply with sections of the Voting Rights Act.

Wieser said they had few problems with the last-minute arrangements, with only one complaint of a translator who was suspected of campaigning for a erville, things were relatively calm Tuesday, election monitors said. Carter, who opens his office during polling hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every election to field complaints, said he visited a few polls Tuesday to satisfy his own need to oversee the election process. "We haven't gotten any complaints that have risen to the level where we would file criminal charges," Carter said.

He said other than typical electioneering complaints, the most eventful complaint his office handled was from an East Chicago precinct committeeman upset that a man was campaigning with a bull CROWN POINT "There were no losers tonight," Isailovich told about 100 supporters at the Macedonian Cultural Center. "Because we got our message out. Maybe they didn't like it, but they had to think about it." Among the hundreds who crowded into the Halls of Justice to congratulate Klein was outgoing Councilman Jim Wirtz, R-at large, who ran unsuccessfully against Mayor James Metros in 1995. "You ran a hell of a better campaign than I did eight years ago, and you deserved to win," Wirtesaid. 1 I SIT 11 1 Hi horn near a polling place.

When inspectors arrived, they found the man barking his message outside the 50-foot zone from which electioneering is banned, so he was campaigning within his rights. Carter's office and the election board are investigating the complaint of a Gary man who said someone may have taken advantage of a voting machine glitch to steal his vote in Gary precinct 2-24. James Wieser, lead Democratic attorney for the Lake County election board, also reported an uneventful day as of 6 p.m. when the polls closed. He said general elections in Lake County tend to gen ir f- mayor-elect told a cheering crowd he was ready to lead the city.

"Today the voters decided to put this city on a path to a bright future," he said. "The size of the support overwhelms me. It is clearly a mandate. The people asked me to lead this journey, and I am proud to do it." The election's result was clear almost from the moment the polls closed at 6 p.m. Unofficial results show Isailovich took two precincts in the city's heavily Democratic north end, but Klein won by substantial margins nearly everywhere else.

BY GINA CZARK Times Staff Writer HOBART Mayor Linda Buzinec earned a third term Tuesday night, claiming victory over city GOP Chairman John Guthrie in a closer than expected race. Although she won all but a handful of precincts, Buzinec garnered only about 400 more votes than Guthrie. At the American Legion Hall, a large crowd of supporters chanted "Four more years!" as Buzinec entered vote totals on a large billboard. And every time she added numbers to a precinct she won, the crowd erupted in applause. When the last total for the 30 precincts was entered, she turned to her supporters and gave a thumbs up sign.

The audience knew what that meant and ti(t 2,744 2, one for proud can Lake County officials say few complaints reported, and they were all minor. BY ELIZABETH EAKEN Times Staff Writer CROWN POINT -They waited by the phones for 12 hours Tuesday in the office of Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter but logged only 11 election complaints by 4:30 p.m. After a May primary election fraught with serious allegations of election fraud surrounding absentee ballots in East Chicago and Scher- GARY Scott King (D) 10,028 votes 1 Charles R. Smith Jr. (R) 1,201 votes Registered voters: 74,901 Estimated turnout 15 percent King wins in Gary by landslide BY WILLIAM LAZARUS Times Staff Writer GARY Democratic Gary Mayor Scott King easily won a third term in office, trouncing his Republican opponent Charles Smith Jr.

"It was obviously a very light turnout. There was no real campaign mounted by the Republicans," said King, who won nearly 90 percent of the vote. Smith said he was able to raise important issues and, thus, won even if he lost. "If (voters) feel the mayor is doing an excellent job, he will continue the progress," Smith said. King said he already has asked for resignations of department heads, and, as he did at the beginning of his second term, will re-interview them for their jobs.

"I'll make some changes bring in some fresh blood," he said. Public safety will stay top priority, the mayor said, adding that he will continue "an aggressive capital investment program" and seek to diversify the city's economic base. Maurice Eisenstein, a political science professor at Purdue University Calumet, said King's landslide victory was inevitable and unfortunate. Since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he said, blacks traditionally have voted Democratic and, as to Republicans in Gary, "It doesn't matter who you are, or what case you present. Nobody is going to listen to you." Two Democrats who King defeated in the primary expressed differing views on sticking with the party.

Gary attorney Douglas Grimes said he would vote, but definitely not for King. "I'm not going to support people who I know are being desti uctive in my community," he said. "It's time we take a different approach Party is irrelevant. It's the candidate It's high time we find out whether people of this community will welcome more than a one-party rule." Roosevelt Allen a Calumet Township board member and an another King opponent in the primary, sees it differently. Tm a loyal Democrat," he said of his decision to vote for the mayor.

Democratic voters in the primary "felt he did a good job and he should continue I think that scenario should be played out, whatever his plan is for the city." King said many cities have nonpartisan mayoral elections decided by majority vote, with or without a run-off, and that Indiana perhaps should consider such an approach. Crown Point Mayor-elect Oan Klein and his wife, Vicky, watch as poll results come in Tuesday night at the Hall supporters who packed the hall to cheer Klein on. Klein claims CP. mayor BY CASEY NEWTOWN Times Staff Writer CROWN POINT Call it a Dan-slide. Republican Daniel Klein defeated Democrat Wayne Isailovich by nearly a 2-to-l margin Tuesday, returning the GOP to power in the Crown Point mayor's office for the first time since 1991.

Pyrotechnics went off at the Halls of Justice as Klein took the stage with his family shortly after 7:30 p.m. As confetti swirled around him, the 48-year-old HOBART TAS0SKAT0P0DIS THE TIMES of Justice, with several hundred victory E' Daniel M. Klein (R) 4,289 votes Wayne Isailovich (D) 2,158 votes Registered voters: 15,578 Estimated turnout: 43 percent MERRILLVILLE Town elects first minority councilmen in 32 years For the first time in its 32-year history a minority has been elected to the Town Council. The significance of the election Tuesday wasn't lost on the town's Democrats. An already jubilant crowd applauded and cheered when 1st Ward Town Council candidate Terrell Taylor, one of two black candidates to win a seat on the Town Council, finally made his entrance at the Slovak Club.

Taylor defeated Republican opponent Jackie Swike in the 1st Ward, Richard Hardaway, the second minority running for a position on the Town Council, also handily defeated Republican candidate Cheryl Azcona in the 2nd Ward. "We didn't make history. It was the people who took the initiative and the privilege to vote. They elected their leaders," Taylor said. "I feel great.

I'm truly blessed. The race wasn't based on gender or race. We never focused on her (Swike) but on what we have done, what we are doing and what we can do together," he said. Hardaway also said he doesn't believe the election was based on race but rather on the individual. Democratic incumbent wins third term as city's mayor Linda Buzinec (D) votes John Guthrie (R) 327 votes Registered voters: 17,867 Estimated turnout: 29 percent a fry- t- yelled, "Nice job, mayor." Speaking to the crowd of supporters, including department heads, Democratic candidates, city employees and voters, Buzinec thanked everyone their hard work.

She then praised the slate of Democratic candidates and said she was of her party's campaign. "Each and every one of us walk out of this a winner," Buzinec said. JOHN LUKE THE TIMES Linda Buzinec, Democratic mayoral Incumbent, Is jubilant Tuesday at the American Legion Hall as the victor over Republican John Guthrie..