Bartholomew County election officials have moved several hundred registered voters to inactive status as part of the state’s ongoing maintenance of voter rolls.
As of Wednesday, 507 Bartholomew County voters had been placed on inactive status after two attempts by state officials to confirm their address through the mail were unsuccessful, said Taylor Seagraves, elections administrator at the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office.
Inactive status means that a voter did not update or confirm their registration address, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office. The status does not prevent someone from voting, but it is the first step toward cancelling their registration. Inactive voters who attempt to cast ballots will be asked to update their address, Seagraves said.
Voters who were placed on inactive status this year and do not cast ballots in any election prior to January 2025 or update their address will have their registration cancelled, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office.
In February, Bartholomew County election officials canceled 1,999 inactive voter registrations, said Seagraves, who added that 1,000 to 2,000 local voter registrations are typically cancelled after each federal election cycle.
“People move around a lot or change counties and then they just never update their registration,” Seagraves said. “So that’s why the state has that mailing to try and help narrow down our registered voters.”
The process of updating the voter list is not new. States have been required to do so under federal law since the 1990s, local election officials said.
The Indiana Secretary of State’s Office claims that the process helps “counties improve the accuracy and integrity of Indiana’s voter registration list.”
Earlier this year, the Indiana Election Division mailed a postcard to every active registered voter in the state. The postcard instructed voters that no further action was needed if they were the person that the postcard was addressed to, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office.
If they weren’t the person the postcard was intended for, they were instructed to write “Return to Sender” on the postcard and put it back in the mail.
State officials sent a second postcard to the forwarding address on file with the U.S. Postal Service if any of the initial mailings were returned as undeliverable. If the second mailing comes back as undeliverable, the voter is placed on inactive status.
Anyone whose registration was cancelled can re-register on the state’s online voter registration portal, indianavoters.in.gov, or in person at the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office, at 234 Washington St.
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Bartholomew County residents who want to register to vote can do so online via the state’s online voter registration portal, indianavoters.in.gov, or by going in-person to the Bartholomew County Clerk’s Office, at 234 Washington St.
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