Expand Voting Rights and Elections

Indiana’s voting laws are among the most restrictive in the country.  The result?  According to the most recent Indiana Civic Health Index, in 2022, Indiana ranked 50^th for voter turnout among all states and the District of Columbia, only West Virginia had lower turnout.  Partisan gerrymandering is a big factor in our turnout problems, in too many parts of the state both state and Congressional districts have been drawn to heavily favor one party over the other.

But gerrymandering isn’t the only reason for our horrible turnout statistics.  Indiana’s election laws are full of bureaucratic hurdles that can and do disenfranchise voters.  Early deadlines and restrictive ID requirements have particular impact on infrequent or vulnerable voters, like the elderly, voters with disabilities and students.

Common Cause Indiana supports the following election and voting reform policies.

• Election day voter registration
• Automatic voter registration for 18-year-old residents
• Extending polling place hours from 6 – 6 to 6 – 8 p.m.
• No excuse absentee vote by mail
• Permanent absentee vote by mail application
• Citizens redistricting commission for state and Congressional redistricting

2024 Legislative Session:  General Assembly Passes Unnecessary and Unconstitutional Election Legislation

The Indiana General Assembly made a bad situation worse when they passed HB1264, a bill premised on the false notion that Indiana elections are vulnerable to fraud.  The new law has a number of provisions that have the potential to disenfranchise Hoosier voters.  Common Cause Indiana led a large group of allied organizations fighting this bill but unfortunately it passed along party lines and was signed by Governor Holcomb.  We are currently working with some of these allies doing the necessary due diligence to prepare for a legal challenge.  We opposed this bill for the following reasons:

• Based on the false belief that there are non-citizens voting in Indiana elections, this new law will compare a list from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles of non-citizens who have been issued temporary credentials with the list of registered voters. If someone appears on both lists, they will be presumed to be a non-citizen and will have 30 days to prove their citizenship status, or they will be removed from the voting rolls.  The problem is that the information from the BMV is likely to be dated; it could be as much as eight years old.  So, this new provision will wrongly identify many new citizens as non-citizens and challenge their voting status.  That’s not just a horrible way to treat new Hoosiers, it’s also unconstitutional because all voters deserve equal treatment.
• House Enrolled Act 1264 will allow the state to use information from the credit bureau Experian and other commercial sources to compare with the voter list in an attempt to purge voters who are registered at old addresses. Just like the information from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, this information could be dated or erroneous, leading to legitimate voter registrations being wrongly targeted for purging.
• House Enrolled Act 1264 makes a fundamental change to a law that has been on the books for more than 20 years. If an individual fails to submit their driver’s license number or the last 4 digits of their Social Security number on a voter registration application that is hand-delivered to the voter registration office, the application will not be fully processed until the individual submits additional proof of residency.  This will have a disproportionate impact on students and young, first-time voters, as well as people with disabilities and senior citizens who live in congregate settings.
• House Enrolled Act 1264 will allow counties to challenge an individual’s voter registration application if they believe the individual has submitted a “non-residential” address. Since zoning laws can change and aren’t consistent, this section could result in legitimate registrations being challenged.

Impact of House Enrolled Act 1334 (2023 Legislative Session)

The 2023 General Assembly passed House Enrolled Act 1334, which requires anyone applying to vote absentee by mail to submit their “Voter ID” number.  The problem with this requirement is that an individual’s voter ID number could be one of three numbers (Driver’s License number, last 4 of SSN or an arbitrary number assigned by the state) and typically the voter does not know which one is in their file.  CCIN has been researching the number of voters who have had their applications rejected because of this unnecessary requirement in order to build a case to challenge this harmful law.