An Indiana legislative committee has turned aside a proposal that aimed to tighten the state law on the increasingly popular practice of voting by mail.
The state Senate’s elections committee voted unanimously Monday to strip the provisions from a bill that was approved last month along party lines by the Republican-dominated House.
The proposal would have required voters who requested mail-in ballots to swear under possible penalty of perjury that they wouldn’t be able to vote in person at any time during the 28 days before Election Day.
Supporters had maintained it was aimed at encouraging people to cast ballots in person during Indiana’s early voting period but voting rights activists argued it would discourage people from selecting their most convenient way of voting.
Republican Sen. Greg Walker of Columbus said he believed the proposed restrictions would cause confusion among people who would want to vote by mail without improving election integrity.
The Senate committee endorsed remaining portions of the bill, including a plan supporters say will improve Indiana’s election security by adding small printers to thousands of electronic touch-screen voting machines before the 2024 election. Some voting rights groups criticize that plan as relying on ineffective and outdated technology.
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According to the recently released Indiana Civic Health Index report, Indiana dropped in rank from 41st (in 2016) to 46th (in 2020) in voter turnout.
Or they could just mail all registered voters ballots. Surprise the GOP would still win in the GOP dominated state and elections would probably cost less money. Colorado, Oregon, Washington all vote by mail and all have large GOP populations.
Buying printers for the existing machines is the dumbest thing I’ve heard yet. All the technology we use needs to be trashed. No one would buy an iPhone to use twice a year but that’s we do with the election technology investment complex we have invested in, pushed by the campaign contributions to our elected officials.
Look, we all know where this is going – we are going back to paper ballots because of disinformation around technology. It doesn’t matter how secure it is, or how many code reviews we allow or the underlying technology… people don’t understand that, and no amount of reassurance will make them feel better.
And you know what? That’s fine. We have the processes that allow us to conduct secure elections using paper ballots just fine. We catch the fraud and we find people who try to vote twice. Anyone who tells you otherwise is just spreading falsehoods.
The concern should be around the drive to change the processes. People who throw out terms like “targeted fraud” and who believe the 2020 election was “stolen” should not be allowed anywhere near an elected office that administers elections.
Colorado Oregon and Washington are all heavily Democrats states. Check your facts Jason
Check your facts reminds me of the use of the phrase, “alternative facts”.
Alternative facts was a phrase coined by former defeated President Trump’s White House adviser Kellyanne Conway to defend the many false statements by Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer.
Dean actually Portland is heavily Democrats. The largest most populated city so there fore most of Or goes Democratic. But a lot of Oregon is conservative. In fact cities on the border with ID wanted to go with ID so they can join other conservatives. I know nothing about Washington or Co.