An election bill being debated in the Indiana General Assembly that initially faced corporate criticism before being watered down could add an additional requirement for Bartholomew County voters who wish to request an absentee-by-mail ballot online.
In its current form, the measure, Senate Bill 353, would require voters to submit their 10-digit Indiana driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when applying online for absentee-by-mail ballots.
The measure, however, would not add any additional requirements for voters who request an absentee-by-mail ballot in person.
Currently, voters in Bartholomew County are not required to submit that information when applying online to vote absentee, though they are required to submit their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when registering to vote, said Shari Lentz, supervisor of voter registration and elections.
Under the proposed measure, county clerk’s offices would then be tasked with making sure the number provided in the absentee-by-mail ballot application matches what the voter provided when registering to vote.
Unless state officials created a mechanism to verify the voter’s information online before the application is sent to county clerks, “it would be our responsibility to make sure that (the number) did match what the voter had registered with,” Lentz said.
Last week, the proposal drew opposition from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., with a top executive telling the House elections committee last Tuesday that the company believed the bill wasn’t needed and that it stoked false claims of widespread voting fraud during the 2020 election, The Associated Press reported.
At the time, the bill included language that would have required voters to submit their 10-digit Indiana driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on online or in-person applications for absentee-by-mail ballots, according to wire reports.
The bill also included provisions that would have prohibited the state election commission from changing an election date or expanding mail-in voting options as it did by delaying the 2020 primary by a month with the support of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb and Indiana GOP and Democratic state party leaders.
The bill’s Republican sponsors have said the measure is aimed at preventing voter fraud by having similar voter ID requirements for mail-in voting as the state has for in-person voting at polling sites, The Associated Press reported.
Opponents, however, counter that it will lead to many applications being rejected because voters won’t know which number is on file with their county election office and some older voter registration records include no such numbers.
Some Democratic elections officials also said they worried about local election workers having enough time for the additional responsibility of checking ID numbers on mail-in ballot applications and notifying voters about problems ahead of voting deadlines.
The measure now is set to go to the full House for consideration after the House elections committee approved some changes to the bill late last week, according to wire reports. The bill cleared the state Senate in February.
On Friday, the committee deleted provisions that Republicans had pushed through the Senate making voters put such numbers on paper applications, according to wire reports.
The committee also voted to drop a provision that would prohibit the state election commission from changing an election date or expanding mail-in voting options, according to wire reports.
Committee Chairman Rep. Tim Wesco, a Republican from Osceola, said he believed the step would improve security for online ballot applications.
“It would make it more difficult for someone to request an absentee ballot for another person without their consent, because they would have to have that personal information,” Wesco said.
Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Democrat from Terre Haute, proposed the change, saying the ID numbers weren’t needed on paper applications since state law already required election workers to check the voter’s signature from registration records before sending out a mail-in ballot, according to wire reports.
Locally, Bartholomew County Democratic Party Chair Steve Schoettmer said the bill would place an additional burden on voters and increases the chance of clerical errors by transposing numbers.
The bill also perpetuates false claims of voter fraud by former President Donald Trump after he lost the 2020 election, Schoettmer said.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election — election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well, and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities, according to wire reports.
“It does perpetuate that myth that there was something wrong with the last election, and all that really happened was a bunch of people voted,” Schoettmer said. “If you’re in a red area, a bunch of Republicans voted, and if you’re in a blue area, a bunch of Democrats voted. …This (bill) perpetuates that conspiracy theory that we’ve got to do something to fix a problem when there isn’t a problem. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
Bartholomew County Republican Party Chair Luann Welmer said she was not familiar enough with the bill to comment.
Welmer said she has been mainly focusing on the local party since becoming chairwoman last month.
Bartholomew County election officials, for their part, have said in previous interviews they felt confident with safeguards in place to prevent fraud on mail-in absentee ballots.
Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash also said in a previous interview that he cannot recall any reports of voter fraud in the county being referred to his office, and only remembers one instance in which the legality of a vote was questioned.
“In the 17.5 years that I’ve been in office, I’ve only had one report of it that I can recall,” Nash said. “…My recollection is that it had to do with someone who joined the military and were still voting and weren’t doing it the right way. It wasn’t fraud. It was a violation of the rules. It wasn’t like they were pretending to be someone else.”
Currently, people must provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to register to vote in Indiana.
The clerk’s office verifies that the applicant lives where they say they do, Bartholomew County Clerk Jay Phelps said in a previous interview. First-time applicants must provide documentation that links them to the address they listed on the application, which can be a bank statement, utility bill or driver’s license.
A significant portion of voter registration applications comes from the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which has processes in place to make sure people applying for state IDs and driver’s licenses are providing accurate information, Lentz said.
The Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office receives, on average, 30 voter registrations each day from the BMV, though not all of those are new registrations, Lentz said.
Additionally, the voter registration system is linked to the Social Security Office through, allowing local election officials to verify that a living person with that name has that Social Security number.
If there is no match, local election officials gather more information from the voter.
Once the clerk’s office receives the signed application for an absentee-by-mail ballot and processes it, a bipartisan absentee board, which includes one Democrat and one Republican, will prepare the ballot and instructions for the voter to follow, Phelps said in a previous interview.
The board must then initial the ballot and stamp it with an official election stamp and seal that is specially made for all 92 county clerks in Indiana before the ballot is considered valid. The board then mails the voter the ballot and instructions.
When election staff receives a completed mail-in ballot, the absentee board will check that the signature on the ballot and the signature on the absentee ballot application match “to make sure there’s not a major discrepancy” and update the statewide voter registration system, indicating that person had voted by mail.
If the signatures do not match, the board will contact the voter.
All mail-in ballots are kept under lock and key in a secure location at the Bartholomew County Courthouse until Election Day. At the end of every workday, election officials run a report to verify that everyone who returned an absentee ballot had actually been sent one.
About 39% of the 6,700 absentee-by-mail ballots cast in Bartholomew County in the 2020 presidential election were requested online, Lentz said.
However, Democrats in Bartholomew County voted absentee-by-mail more often than Republicans.
Democrat Joe Biden received 1,158 more absentee-by-mail votes than former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, even though Trump carried the county with 61.7% of the vote.
Lentz said there were no issues with fraud involving absentee-by-mail ballots during the 2020 general election or the primary, when a record 8,313 voters requested absentee-by-mail ballots.
“Thankfully, we had no issues like that,” Lentz said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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To track bills going through the Indiana General Assembly, visit http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2021/bills/.
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