Indiana Senate committee hears two election bills, including one with tight redistricting deadline
The Senate Election Committee heard testimony Monday on two major election bills with election officials pointing to sections of the bill that would create barriers to voting, including a tight 2030 census redistricting deadline.
House Bill 1679, authored by Rep. Timothy Wesco, R-Osceola, is a 43-page various elections matter bill that addresses many election issues, from circuit court clerk offices remaining closed on primary and general election days to requiring redistricting following the 2030 decennial census to be complete by June 29, 2031.
When House Bill 1679 was debated on final reading in the House in February, two Democratic amendments were ruled out of order, which Democratic House members called an abuse of power.
Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond, offered an amendment that would have allowed permanent absentee vote by mail status to elderly voters and disabled voters. Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, offered an amendment expanding vote by absentee ballot and before an absentee voter board.
Both amendments weren't considered for violating House rule of germaneness, or being related to the topic at hand.
Assistant Democratic Floor Leader Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said House Bill 1679 was a 'Christmas tree' of a bill.
Pierce read allowed what matters the bill addresses including: modifying the definition of candidate; requiring an elementary school used as a polling place to remain closed on primary election day and general election day; allowing the county election board to approve the use of a binder instead of a paper envelope or bag for poll worker information; and a county chairman filling a candidate vacancy for local office, among many other changes.
The legislature has a Republican supermajority, Pierce said, but Democratic amendments should be voted on and not blocked.
'You have now crossed the line into abuse of power,' Pierce said. 'You know it's germane. You don't want to vote.'
On Monday, Brad King, the Republican co-director of the Indiana Election Division, said the language to allow poll worker paperwork, excluding provisional ballot materials, to be placed in a binder was drafted because of the binder system the Lake County Board of Elections and Registration director and assistant director put together for the county.
King said the redistricting date was added as an amendment in the House and he wasn't sure how the date was picked. But King said redistricting can't be completed in an election year, and 2031 will be a municipal election year.
Kegan Prentice, representing the Secretary of State, said the office supports the bill because it will help improve elections in Indiana. He said he wasn't sure how the June 2031 date was added to the bill, but that it aims to ensure that county elections officials complete redistricting every 10 years.
Angela Nussmeyer, the Democratic co-director of the Indiana Election Division, said the 2030 redistricting deadline would be tight as the data likely won't be available to counties until late 2030 or early 2031, assuming there are no delays in receiving the data.
'Six months to pull together new districts at the county level and the municipal level seems like a bit of a lift for those local government units,' Nussmeyer said. 'Cities and towns redistricting in the middle of an election cycle is something that we don't encourage, and in fact would require them to redistrict in 2032 if we follow current law.'
House Bill 1680, also authored by Wesco, deals with election security and transparency that would: require counties to submit to the Secretary of State information about the county's information technology provider; permit a poll book holder, challenger or watcher to re-enter multiple polling places; require the county voter registration official to send a notice requesting proof of citizenship to a person who uses an identification number from a temporary credential; and provides that an applicant may not list on a voter registration form a post office box or a commercially available mailing box as a residence address of the applicant, among other things.
Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, said the nonpartisan, grassroots organization opposes the bill, particularly because Indiana doesn't have a problem with non-citizens voting in elections.
'House Bill 1680 is the latest in the string of laws and bills that require proof of citizenship for only certain groups of voters creating burdens for naturalized citizens as compared to U.S. born voters and to people without accessible forms of proof of citizenship,' Vaughn said. 'There is no evidence of widespread voter registration or voting by non-citizens.'
The bill restricts voter registration assistance, which could violate federal law, by limiting voters with disabilities or limited English proficiency from receiving help to fill out a voter registration form, Vaughn said.
The bill also would reject ballots without accurate dates of signature without a cure process, Vaughn said. In this portion of the bill, Vaughn said a cure process should be added.
Barbara Tully, with the League of Women Voters Indianapolis, said the bill's proof of citizenship requirement 'burdens naturalized citizens more so than native-born citizens.' The section on poll watchers could lead to voter intimidation, she said.
The restriction of providing commercially available addresses on a voter registration form would prevent homeless people, who sometimes list a church or soup kitchen on their registration form, from voting, Tully said.
'They have every right to vote as any of us that are housed,' Tully said.
Nussmeyer said she was neutral on the bill but listed a number of concerns.
Nussmeyer said she's concerned about a section of the bill that would allow the Secretary of State to enter into a memorandum of understanding with other states to share unrestricted versions of the state's voter file 'to do some type of matching that's not codified or has any sort of procedure and then receive information back.'
The state's election division, which is a bipartisan office, can complete audits and review the voter roll for data, Nussmeyer said. The bill further gives the Secretary of State more power over procedural audits, she said.
Prentice said the office supports House Bill 1680 because it will enhance security as the Secretary of State has a cyber security contract for the whole state.
The bill's section on poll watchers 'makes more sense' because of 'the dynamic we have with vote centers instead of precinct locations,' Prentice said.
The MOUs, Prentice said, would be used to 'compare voter registration information.' At national conferences, secretaries of state have expressed interest in MOUs to share voter information for voter list maintenance, he said. Kentucky, Ohio and Florida have reached out to the Secretary of State to enter into MOUs, he said.
When asked, Prentice said protecting voter data would be addressed in each MOU.
Prentice said voters will be able to receive assistance on voter registration forms, but the person assisting them can't fill out the form for them and has to provide their name and contact information at the bottom of the form.
The bills, with amendments, will be heard in committee again next week.
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