Senator Lugar Can't Vote for Himself

Politico reports that Indiana Senator Dick Lugar can't vote for himself in his election because he's not eligible:

Sen. Dick Lugar has been ruled ineligible to vote in Indiana by a county election board.

The partisan vote by the Marion County Election Board was 2-1...

The commission ruled that the six-term senator was guilty of a non-criminal election violation and that he has abandoned his residency in Indianapolis.

Ken Tomlinson recently chronicled the Indiana Senate race and Lugar's troubles:

"After a lifetime of political good fortune in Indiana, Senator Richard Lugar can’t catch a break. He is facing what Politico calls his “toughest reelection campaign in decades,” and with the May 8 GOP primary looming, he desperately needs to repair relations with party conservatives.

"In few states is the party base as certifiably conservative as in Indiana. One poll shows 70 percent of the state’s Republicans respect the Tea Party​—​and few issues raise the ire of these party activists like congressional earmarks in spending bills.

"So what does Lugar do? Three months before the primary, when the Senate had a chance to ban this symbol of big-government malfeasance, Lugar joined with Harry Reid in a key Senate vote to save earmarking."

Lugar's primary opponent, Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock, released the following statement from spokesman Christopher Conner regarding the news that Lugar isn't eligible to vote: 

“It's sad that Senator Lugar had to be instructed by the Marion County Election Board that he must maintain an actual home in the state he represents in the U.S. Senate.

“The fact that Senator Lugar hired a team of high-priced lawyers to fight for his right to use a legal technicality so that he doesn’t have to live among Hoosiers just proves our point about how out of touch he is.

“Indiana Republicans already know that Senator Lugar is out of touch with them on issues like gun control, the national debt, earmarks, liberal judges and amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“Our position on this issue has always been clear: regardless of how he is registered to vote, the U.S. Constitution requires Senator Lugar to be an “inhabitant” of the state to be elected. Currently, he is not."