COLUMBUS, Ind. — Bartholomew County election officials are confident with safeguards in place to prevent fraud on mail-in absentee ballots as they prepare for what they believe will be record number of voters casting ballots through the mail locally for the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Voting by mail is receiving renewed attention after President Donald Trump said Thursday that people who vote early by mail should show up at polling places and vote again if their ballots haven’t been counted, a slight walk back from his comments on Wednesday when he suggested people vote twice to test the mail-in system, according to The Associated Press.
Local election officials, however, suggest that voters who are concerned about whether their mail-in absentee ballots were received can call the Bartholomew County Voter Registration Office at 812-379-1604 or visit indianavoters.in.gov, which Phelps said features a tracking tool that allows voters to follow the status of their absentee-by-mail ballot.
Phelps said he was unaware of Trump’s comments on Thursday morning.
“They can give us call and, honestly, we would prefer that,” Phelps said. “If a voter is worried, and let’s say they’re up against the deadline and they send it out on time but they want to make sure we received it, give us a call or they can also go to indianavoters.in.gov and they can track their absentee ballot. …I would highly encourage voters to do that. It’s just peace of mind and also if there’s an issue and we never received the ballot, we can start working on what to do next so that voter is able to vote.”
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
