<em>This editorial was originally published April 4 in the South Bend Tribune. </em>
Last year, in the midst of a public health crisis, Indiana officials came together in a bipartisan fashion to change the date of the primary election and allow for no-excuse mail-in voting — a decision driven by concern for the public good, not politics.
Well, we can’t allow something like that to happen again, now can we?
Senate Bill 353 is a clear reaction to the changes made by Indiana’s Election Commission, which was guided in part by the recommendation of state leaders in moving to ensure that Hoosiers could cast their vote in the primary election without fearing for their health.
The measure, authored by Sens. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, Eric Koch, R-Bedford, and Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, prohibits the commission from “instituting, increasing or expanding” vote-by-mail or absentee vote-by-mail and changing the time, place or manner of holding an election. It also prohibits the governor from changing “the time, place, or manner of holding an election” during a declared disaster emergency.
The bill would give the Indiana General Assembly authority to change the timing and procedures of elections. The point of the bill, according to Houchin, “is that we won’t have what happened across the country. We will not see courts and statewide elected officials and others who are not the General Assembly making changes to the manner and process by which we vote on a statewide basis.”
What happened last year was an unimaginable reality that challenged every phase of life. It also created an obstacle to voting, and the change to allow no-excuse absentee voting was an effort to remove the barrier to Hoosiers safely exercising their constitutional right.
More than a half-million Hoosiers, a record number, requested to vote by mail for the 2020 primary. Despite those numbers — and a pandemic that was still raging into the fall — Indiana officials chose not to do the right thing and expand mail-in voting for the general election.
It’s worth noting that SB 353, which is scheduled for a House committee hearing on Tuesday, would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote, but was changed at the last minute after the Secretary of State’s office said making people prove they are citizens is “unconstitutional,” according to the bill’s author.
It’s as if the goal is to make voting more difficult.
That’s hardly unique to Indiana: Over the last few months, a flood of bills has been introduced by Republican lawmakers across the country at the state level that — if passed — could make it harder for millions of Americans to cast their ballots. It’s all being done in the name of election security, all while there is still no proof of widespread voter fraud.
Last year’s rescheduled primary, which allowed all Hoosiers the option of safely casting their ballot during a pandemic, was the right decision and resulted from responsible leadership.
Nope, can’t let that happen again.
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