Bills cutting short the early voting period and submitting the oaths of ballot counters to the election division passed out of the Indiana Senate Elections Committee Monday.
The committee also heard a bill about school board elections, but decided to hold the bill one more week.
Early voting
Senate Bill 284, authored by Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, and Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, would reduce the early in-person voting period to 7 days.
The committee voted 6-3 on an amended bill that would reduce early in-person voting to 14 days from the current 28 days.
Lake County Election and Voter Registration Board director Michelle Fajman testified against the bill because voters in Lake County have really begun utilizing early in-person voting in recent years.
Fajman said she disagreed with a point the committee made that fewer people vote in the first 14 days of early in-person voting. County election officials should have a voice in their early in-person voting set up, she said, because they know the trends of their voters best.
In Lake County, 90,049 voters voted early in-person in the 2024 presidential election, Fajman said, while 111,098 votes were cast on Election Day. For that many people to vote in two weeks or one week would become hectic, she said.
“We like having the full amount of time. We’d like to do more,” Fajman said. “Early voting serves a purpose. We’re one of the worst (states) in the nation with voter turnout, and here we’re trying to limit it.”
Julia Vaughn, the executive director of Common Cause Indiana, testified against the bill. Indiana offering 28 days of early in-person voting period is a benefit for voters, she said.
“That’s one of the good things Indiana does well with elections,” Vaughn said. “Going to two weeks from one month is not enough.”
Vaughn said early in-person voting has increased in popularity across the states. Some counties, like Marion County, have reported that people wait 2 to 3 hours in line to vote early in-person, she said.
If the bill is signed into law, Vaughn said it would impact disabled and elderly voters who have utilized early in-person voting in recent years.
“We don’t need less early voting, we need more of it,” Vaughn said. “There’s no reason to do this.”
Around a dozen people testified against the bill, Fajman and Vaughn said. A representative with the Secretary of State’s office testified in favor of the bill, Vaughn said.
As the bill moves through the Senate, Vaughn said Common Cause Indiana officials will call legislators to encourage them to vote against the bill. If it passes the Senate, Vaughn said they will continue to fight the bill as it moves through the House.
Ideally, Vaughn said, the bill gets thrown out.
“It takes us backwards and voters don’t have to go backwards,” Vaughn said.
Ballot counter oath
Sen. Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, authored Senate Bill 186, which would require the circuit court clerk to give a copy of each oath signed by a ballot counter on provisional ballots to the election division no later than 30 days after the election.
If passed, the bill would require a copy of all the provisional ballot oaths for the 2024 general election be submitted to the election division no later than Aug. 31.
In drafting the bill, Dernulc said he worked with Secretary of State Diego Morales and Brad King, co-director of the Indiana Election Division. Dernulc testified before the committee stating he authored the bill after residents came to him to talk about more transparency in the election process.
“This bill came from a group of people that did come to me. They would like to see a little more transparency, that’s all,” Dernulc said. “There’s nothing that anybody’s doing that’s adversarial or bad, just a little more transparency into it.”
Dernulc said those who approached him wanted “more items to be put in” the bill, but he thought it would be best to start with ballot counter oaths.
Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, said residents have the option to file a request for records with their local clerk’s office for election documents.
Ford asked if there was an issue in Lake County that required the election division to review records. Dernulc said no and stated that the bill aims to increase transparency.
Fajman testified against the bill. She held up a 13-by-19 envelope and pointed to where a ballot counter signs the oath at the bottom.
“That’s not just a simple thing that I can throw in the copy machine,” Fajman said. “I can’t scan this in because it’s got other envelopes in it, so it won’t go through a scanner.”
The bipartisan county election board reviews all provisional ballots, Fajman said.
“This is a waste of money. I know the individuals who he’s talking about that want transparency. They have not come into our office to ask for it. If they did, I would gladly show them,” Fajman said.
Carol Parker, a poll worker from Highland, said she supports the bill because she’d like the information to be reviewed “for the purpose of knowing, one way or the other, whether anybody takes this stuff serious.”
The bill passed out of committee 7-2 along party lines with seven Republican members voting in favor and two Democratic members voting against.
School board elections
Senate Bill 287, authored by Byrne, Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, and Sen. Blake Doriot, R-Goshen, would change the school board election process to that of other elections, which would include a primary and general election.
The bill would also require school board members to select a political party, which would change current law that dictates that school boards candidates be nonpartisan.
Under the bill, school board members would be paid up to 10% of the lowest starting salary of a teacher employed in the districts, which would shift the current $2,000 payment.
Byrne testified before the committee Monday that he filed the bill to increase democracy in the school board election process.
Joel Hand, representing both American Federation of Teachers Indiana and the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, was one of 24 people who spoke against Senate Bill 287. Hand said the organizations oppose the bill because those working in education should be focusing on the students and not politics.
Indiana has had experience with partisan schools, Hand said. Before 1960, a township trustee — who was elected — would appoint school district superintendents, he said, which made the superintendent a politically appointed position.
Vaughn said changing the requirements for candidates for school board won’t result in better school boards.
“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Vaughn said.
John O’Neal, policy and research coordinator for Indiana State Teachers Association, said politics shouldn’t be inserted into school board races.
“We believe it will deter candidates who truly just care about their community rather than getting into partisan, national or state campaign party issues,” O’Neal said.
A representative from the Foundation for Government Accountability was the only public voice of support for the bill.
When voters cast their ballots, they select people in other races based largely on political party, but fewer people vote on school board races because they don’t know where those candidates stand politically, he said. This bill would improve school board voter turnout, he said.
Committee Chairman Gaskill said the bill will be heard for amend and vote next week.
