Indiana struggles with low voter turnout. This major election change could help.

In an effort to combat consistently low voter turnout, Indiana leaders are considering a set of major changes to Indiana’s elections, including moving municipal elections to presidential election years.

Such a change could save taxpayer dollars and increase turnout, according to an Indiana Secretary of State’s Office analysis.

The office held the second of five public meetings Sept. 3 to gather input on the possible change, as required by a law passed this last legislative session. That law, House Enrolled Act 1633, asks the office to study how allowing Hoosiers to vote at any location in their county and changing the timing of municipal elections would affect voter turnout and cost-savings, and report findings to the lawmakers by November.

Indiana ranked in the bottom eight states for voter turnout in both the 2024 and 2022 general elections, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

Boosting turnout for local elections

Findings presented by the secretary of state’s office during the Sept. 3 meeting indicate a potential improvement in dismal turnout rates by moving local elections to a presidential election year.

Indiana municipal elections, where voters elect leaders such as mayors or city councilors, have historically low turnout rates, hovering around 20%.

Add those offices to a ballot with the presidential candidates at the top, and turnout shoots up to around 60%, according to the analysis. Though that increase may come with increased ballot fatigue, representatives with the office said during a presentation, the percentage of people who would be more likely to ignore the bottom half of the ballot is superseded by the turnout gains.

Consolidating elections could also save local government money. It costs $15.52 per voter to hold a municipal general election, the office’s analysis found, while it only takes $5.47 per voter to conduct a presidential general election, due to the typically higher turnout.

Should Indiana toss out precinct-based voting systems?

The other subject of the office’s study were vote centers, a concept quickly gaining steam across the state.

Traditionally, Indiana voters have had to go to a specific polling place assigned to the precinct they live in on Election Day. Vote centers are polling places that allow eligible voters in the county to vote at any location regardless of their precinct. Since the passage of a 2011 law allowing counties to switch to using vote centers, at least 65 counties have adopted the model.

Indiana counties that switched to using vote centers needed fewer poll workers on average, according to an analysis that compared counties that made the switch to a control group in elections between 2016-2024. Because poll workers are compensated for their time, that likely equals cost savings, said Matt Housley, an election systems audit specialist for VSTOP. In 2024, for example, vote center counties spent $2.04 less per voter than counties using a precinct-based system.

But vote centers might not move the needle as much on turnout, which increased slightly in the office’s analysis but was not statistically significant.

Public commenters reluctant to make the change

Many Hoosiers who commented during the meeting were reluctant to make the shift. Some expressed concern about electronic poll books, which are used in every Indiana county, but are required under a vote center model according to representatives of the secretary of state’s office, because they believed the technology to be vulnerable to attack. Others worried that the reduction in polling locations that tends to accompany a switch to a vote center system would contribute to long lines on Election Day.

“Doing vote centers is sort of like closing lanes on a tollway,” said Indiana Democratic Party chair Karen Tallian during the meeting.

To combat that, she advocated for expanding early voting and the hours the polls are open.

Proponents of vote centers said the system makes it easier for people to make it to the polls, particularly when trying to make it to a polling place coming from a job far away from a person’s home precinct.

The next public meeting will be 11:30 a.m. Sept. 19 at the Clark County Government Center in Jeffersonville.

Contact Marissa Meador at mmeador@gannett.com or find her on X at @marissa_meador.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana to consider moving municipal elections to improve turnout