Indiana: Redistricting Bill Would Not Make Changes Until 2017 | Indiana Public Media

Changes to Indiana’s redistricting system likely won’t take place until at least 2017 under a new proposal from House legislative leaders, which would create a redistricting study committee. The committee would be charged with studying redistricting for the next two years, with a report due in December 2016. Under the bill, the committee would consider several issues, including state and federal redistricting laws, the cost of a reform effort and redistricting systems in other states.

Indiana: Floyd County tables request for more voting machines | News and Tribune

Floyd County Clerk Christy Eurton made a formal request Tuesday night for 86 more voting machines, along with accompanying scanners and e-poll books totaling $410,000. She will have to wait another month for an answer. The Floyd County Council unanimously voted to table her request until the Feb. 10 meeting. In the next 26 days, councilmen Jim Wathen, John Schellenberger and Brad Striegel will meet with Eurton and the other two members of the election board, Rick Fox and William Lohmeyer, to look at data and further discuss the issue. That committee will report back to the full council next month with a recommendation. The county currently has 70 voting machines, which the election board said is not nearly enough. Eurton said she is on a tight time frame, since the 2015 municipal election primary will be held May 5 and will now include the entire county following the New Albany-Floyd County School Board’s decision Monday to place an $80 million referendum on the ballot. “More machines will only fix part of the problem,” Striegel said after Eurton’s presentation. “I want to see more data.”

Indiana: Lawmakers rethinking redistricting | Journal Gazette

Halfway through the decade, lawmakers are getting serious about changing how state and federal legislative districts are drawn. “We need to move on this discussion and I think this is the year to do that,” Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said. Under current law, the Indiana House and Senate draw new congressional and legislative maps every 10 years after the census. But a handful of states have moved to independent or bipartisan commissions to eliminate many of the political considerations in drawing maps that favor one party over another. Technology today allows maps to be easily manipulated to constantly gauge the political leanings of voters in specific areas. They also can be drawn specifically to avoid two incumbents facing off in the same new district.

Indiana: Lawmakers ice bill to let Pence run for 2 offices | Indianapolis Star

Indiana’s top legislative Republicans said Tuesday that a bill allowing Gov. Mike Pence to run for the White House and governor on the same ticket is unlikely to be approved this year. Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said Tuesday he plans to send it to the the Senate Rules Committee — shorthand for killing legislation in the Statehouse. Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, told the Indianapolis Star last week that he submitted legislation that would let Pence seek both offices in 2016. His focus, Delph said, was clearing “obstacles” to a potential Pence White House run, to continue drawing national attention to the state.

Indiana: Lawmakers To Push For Independent Redistricting Commission | Indiana Public Media

Last session House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, coauthored legislation creating a redistricting commission, with members appointed by legislative leaders of both parties. While that bill passed the House, it never received a hearing in the Senate. Bosma says he will offer the bill again, but notes both chambers need to buy in this time. “We’ll check out the likelihood of passage in the Senate before we spend a lot of time on it in the House,” Bosma said. “But as you know we passed it last year or the year before and it’s worthy of discussion – and I still think it’s the right direction for the state to go.”

Indiana: Appeals court strikes half of Charlie White’s felony convictions | NW Times

Former Secretary of State Charlie White remains a convicted felon, despite the Indiana Court of Appeals Monday vacating three of the six guilty verdicts against him. In a 3-0 ruling, the appeals court struck one of White’s perjury convictions on the grounds that lying about one’s home address on a marriage license application is not a material violation of the perjury statute, so long as the applicant lives in the county. Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik, a Porter County native, noted in her 55-page ruling that furnishing false information to a county clerk on a marriage license application is a felony, but White wasn’t charged with that crime. The court also concluded two of White’s voter fraud convictions violated double jeopardy prohibitions because they were based on the same criminal actions that resulted in two of his other convictions. The double jeopardy finding was expected after Deputy Attorney General Justin Roebel admitted at oral arguments earlier this month he would have charged White differently to avoid even the possibility of double jeopardy. At the same time, the appeals court affirmed White is guilty of perjury for lying about his address on a voter registration form, of deliberately voting in the wrong precinct in the May 2010 Republican primary election and of theft, for continuing to receive a salary as a Fishers town councilman after forfeiting his seat by moving out of his district.

Indiana: Court hears ex-Indiana elections chief’s appeal | Associated Press

An attorney for former Secretary of State Charlie White faced tough questioning Tuesday from Indiana’s three-judge appeals court during White’s latest bid to overturn the voter fraud convictions that forced him from office. Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik interrupted attorney Andrea Ciobanu only seconds after the attorney began her oral arguments and asked Ciobanu what her “strongest argument” was in White’s appeal of his convictions on six felony counts. Ciobanu said her most substantial argument in seeking to overturn White’s 2012 convictions is that the trial court in central Indiana’s Hamilton County failed to apply Indiana’s residency statute “at all” as his case played out. She said that left White unable to convey to jurors where his actual place of residence was as they heard evidence and eventually convicted him on three counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of theft.

Indiana: Court hears appeal of ex-secretary of state, who’s fighting voter fraud convictions | Associated Press

An attorney for former Secretary of State Charlie White faced tough questioning Tuesday from Indiana’s three-judge appeals court during White’s latest bid to overturn the voter fraud convictions that forced him from office. Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik interrupted attorney Andrea Ciobanu only seconds after the attorney began her oral arguments and asked Ciobanu what her “strongest argument” was in White’s appeal of his convictions on six felony counts. Ciobanu said her most substantial argument in seeking to overturn White’s 2012 convictions is that the trial court in central Indiana’s Hamilton County failed to apply Indiana’s residency statute “at all” as his case played out. She said that left White unable to convey to jurors where his actual place of residence was as they heard evidence and eventually convicted him on three counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of theft.

Indiana: Court hears appeal of ex-Indiana secretary of state, who’s fighting voter fraud convictions | Associated Press

An attorney for former Secretary of State Charlie White faced tough questioning Tuesday from Indiana’s three-judge appeals court during White’s latest bid to overturn the voter fraud convictions that forced him from office. Chief Judge Nancy Vaidik interrupted attorney Andrea Ciobanu only seconds after the attorney began her oral arguments and asked Ciobanu what her “strongest argument” was in White’s appeal of his convictions on six felony counts. Ciobanu said her most substantial argument in seeking to overturn White’s 2012 convictions is that the trial court in central Indiana’s Hamilton County failed to apply Indiana’s residency statute “at all” as his case played out. She said that left White unable to convey to jurors where his actual place of residence was as they heard evidence and eventually convicted him on three counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of theft. “I think it’s difficult for the jury to make that decision based on the evidence they were presented and the limited information they were given and the misapplication of the law,” Ciobanu told the appeals court.

Indiana: Hearing set on ousted politician Charlie White’s appeal | Indianapolis Star

The Indiana Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments next week in former Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White’s appeal of his perjury, theft and fraud conviction. The hearing is set for 1 p.m. Dec. 9. White’s appeal came after a Hamilton Superior Court judge denied his request to overturn his 2012 conviction of six Class D felony charges. He filed the request in March 2013, saying that his attorney, former Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, failed to provide effective counsel. The criminal charges against White stemmed from his residency while he served on the Fishers Town Council. He claimed that he lived at his ex-wife’s home on the east side of Fishers. But prosecutors said he actually lived in a townhouse on the opposite side of town with his then-fiancee. The townhouse was outside his council district, but he continued to take his council salary and vote in the precinct of his former residence.

Indiana: Voter ID laws reduce Indiana election turnout | Tribune-Star

A decade ago, Indiana legislators worked hard to address an imaginary voting problem. It’s time they worked even harder to fix a real one. The Hoosier state ranks at the bottom in citizen participation in elections. This month, a mere 28 percent of the state’s voting-eligible population — a measure of people who could vote, regardless of their registration status — voted, according to early projections by the United States Election Project, based at the University of Florida. Those calculations put Indiana dead last in America in turnout. The Indiana voting system deserves most of the blame. It is true that the pathetic turnout for the 2014 election can partly be attributed to the low-profile offices at stake. Once every 12 years, the ballot features no races for president, U.S. Senate or governor. That was the case on Nov. 4. But a smaller percentage of Hoosiers cast ballots election after election, compared to residents of other states, including 2008 when Indiana turnouts peaked.

Indiana: Appeals hearing set for ex-Indiana elections chief | Associated Press

The next step in former Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White’s fight to overturn his voter fraud conviction is set for next month. The Indiana Court of Appeals announced Monday that a panel of judges will hear oral arguments in White’s case on Dec. 9. The Republican was automatically removed from office in February 2012 after a Hamilton County jury convicted him of six felonies. That included using his ex-wife’s home in Fishers as his voting address in 2010 while living elsewhere as he served on the Indianapolis suburb’s town council and campaigned for secretary of state.

Indiana: The revenge of ex-Secretary of State Charlie White? | Indianapolis Star

Disgraced politician Charlie White is seeking to reinvent himself — as a tell-all political blogger. His target: His Republican colleagues, among others. The former Indiana Secretary of State recently launched The Indy Sentinel, a new website about “pols and media who are fair & those who live to serve the elites in both parties to the public’s detriment,” according to his Twitter account. White, who was convicted of theft and voter fraud in 2012, said he plans to ramp up the website in the coming weeks — as soon as he finishes a reply brief for one of his ongoing legal cases. Right now, the site has just two articles, including one about campaign donations to Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann and the state’s Stellar Communities grant program.

Indiana: Nearly 700,000 voters on state ‘inactive’ polling list | Courier-Journal

More than 696,400 registered voters in Indiana are now considered inactive, due to the state’s voter list update. But those voters will still be able to vote in elections through the federal election in 2016 before being removed from the voter poll lists, according to Secretary of State Connie Lawson. If they do not vote in any election prior to January 2016, county voter registration offices will remove their records from poll lists. Two federal election cycles, or up to four years, must pass before a county may remove an inactive voter from a list. August 6th was the federal deadline for counties to process data from the voter list refresh before the November 2014 election.

Indiana: Second effort to identify outdated voter records underway | NWI.com

Secretary of State Connie Lawson has identified 727,000 potentially inaccurate voter registration records across Indiana. A massive May postcard mailing to all 4.4 million registered Hoosier voters saw about 16 percent returned as undeliverable. Starting this week, the state is sending a second, forwardable postcard to those registrants urging them to update their address and voter registration data. “Inaccurate voter information impairs the integrity of our voting process, and it artificially lowers our voter turnout statistics,” Lawson said. Hoosiers who receive a second postcard must update or confirm their voter information by July 24. Those who do not will be placed on “inactive” status. Inactive registrants still can vote this year, in the 2015 municipal elections and 2016 elections. But inactive voters who fail cast a ballot or update their registrations by 2017 will become eligible for removal from the poll lists.

Indiana: Officials examine grim voter turnout numbers from May primary | Evansville Courier & Press

Vanderburgh County tied for the lowest turnout statewide for May’s primary election and fell below state average with 6 percent of voters casting ballots. Statewide, 13 percent of voters participated in the May 6 primary, according to numbers released this week by the Indiana Secretary of State’s office. Warrick County came in higher at 11 percent. Vanderburgh County joined St. Joseph County with the lowest turnout in the state, though four other counties, including Posey County, saw a 7 percent turnout. Primaries, especially absent of high-profile statewide or national races as was the case on May 6, are historically marked by low numbers at the polls.

Indiana: Verdict still out on utility of vote centers | The Journal Gazette

Counties that have leapt into the world of vote centers invariably talk about how convenient it is for the voter. But so far, that convenience isn’t translating into more people casting ballots. The statewide voter turnout for the recent primary election was 18 percent. By comparison, the 17 counties using vote centers came in with turnout around 15.4 percent. The last time there was no statewide race leading the primary ticket was 2002. Back then statewide turnout was 22 percent; the counties that would later move to vote centers had turnout of 23 percent. “We don’t have data to show that it increases turnout,” Secretary of State Connie Lawson said. “But we don’t see a drop either.”

Indiana: Lake County tallies cost of elections | Post-Tribune

It cost Lake County roughly $10 for each ballot cast in May’s primary election, where voter turnout was just 12.38 percent, the lowest turnout in years. Michelle Fajman, director of the Lake County Board of Elections and Voters Registration, said it costs about $500,000 to conduct a county-wide election, be it a primary or general election, regardless how many voters exercise their right to vote. Before the year is over, the county will spend close to $1 million on the primary and general election cycle. “It basically costs the same whether we have a huge turnout or not,” Fajman said. Costs are relatively static for elections and cannot be reduced just because a low voter turnout is expected. It cost close to $500,000 for the last presidential primary election in 2012 where voter turnout was 60.59 percent. That translates to roughly $2.40 per ballot cast.

Indiana: State’s voter registration numbers don’t reflect reality | Indianapolis Star

According to information from the Indiana Election Division that was published in The Star, less than 11 percent of the registered voters in the Indianapolis metro area voted in the primary this year. There was 13 percent turnout in Lake County, 12 percent in Allen County and 6 percent in Vanderburgh County. When we hear people bemoaning turnout like this, it is interesting to note that we are entering the season when political parties, campaigns and other groups begin voter registration drives in earnest, hoping they can increase turnout by their supporters. It is interesting because voter turnout is calculated by a simple mathematical equation. The number of voters is divided by the number of registered voters. If the number of registered voters is increased, then the number of people voting also has to increase or the turnout percent will decline. People who have been involved in campaigns long enough can remember the days before the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 when registering voters was not as easy as it is today. They also remember the days before the Help America Vote Act of 2002 when purging voter files was done more aggressively, sometimes to the disadvantage of certain groups.

Indiana: State moves to update voter registration rolls | Lafayette Journal & Courier

Registered voters will begin receiving a postcard from the Indiana Secretary of State’s office this week as part of an effort to update voter rolls. “The Secretary of State is sending out a postcard to every registered voter,” Tippecanoe County Clerk Christa Coffey said Monday. “It is the first step in the process of identifying voters who have moved and not updated their registration.” When registered voters receive a postcard, they should look over the information and then decide how to respond, she said. “If the information is correct on it, you don’t have to do anything,” Coffey said.

Indiana: State beginning process to purge voter registration list | Brazil Times

With the 2014 Primary Election now in the rear-view mirror, the Indiana Election Division (IED) is driving ahead in its Statewide Voter Registration List maintenance efforts. Beginning next week, the IED will conduct a residency confirmation and outreach procedure, known as a Statewide Mailing, to all active registered voters in Indiana, which has not been done since 2006. This will begin a process to legally remove voters from the voter registration list. Similar to the postcards mailed by the Clay County Election Office earlier this year, the Statewide Mailing should be considered purely informational for those who receive one. The cards will be sent through non-forwardable mail, and the ones returned to the IED as undeliverable due to an unknown, insufficient or incorrect address will initiate the next steps in the procedure. A second mailing will then be sent to those whose cards were returned as undeliverable, known as a National Change of Address mailing.

Indiana: Aftermath of vote problems in Elkhart County | WSBT

Elkhart County election officials are dealing with a few problems from Tuesday’s primary election, the first time they have used vote centers. Instead of staffing and equipping 117 precincts with voting machines, 25 vote centers were set up countywide, and voters were able to cast ballots at any one of those locations. County election officials are hoping to learn from a mistake that delayed the final vote count on Tuesday. Election board members and staff reviewed the results. It was a start up process with us,” said County Election Board Chairman Wayne Kramer. “We anticipated that there would be some bumps along the way, and there were a few. None of them affected actually the process.” One did develop, though, at North Side Gym. While polls were set to close at 6 p.m., long lines continued past then. The Election Board saw that coming and delivered two additional voting machines to add to the 10 already there. “As the law permits us to do, (the machines) were ushered inside the shoot, which is the 50 foot area inside the polling place so that (voters) would be permitted to vote, and that took additional time,” Kramer said.

Indiana: Faintly, the fine print – Printed boxes on absentee ballots too light, longtime voter discovers | Terre Haute Tribune Star

In the warm sunlight bathing the front porch of Margaret Taylor’s South 14th Street home, faint boxes are barely visible on her absentee ballot for the May 6 Democratic Party primary. According to instructions on the ballot, the boxes are vital because they are what voters must fill in to have their votes counted for various candidates. Voters must fill in the boxes across from the names of the candidates they support. However, when Taylor stands up and takes her ballot into her home, the reduced lighting makes the lightly shaded boxes nearly invisible. “I have a lot of trouble seeing it,” Taylor said. “You gotta really look hard.” Taylor, 82, a former Democratic Party vice precinct committee person and longtime activist in local politics, has been voting since she was legally eligible, and this is the first time she’s seen a ballot like this one, she said. She worries that the boxes may be difficult for older people or those with weak eyesight to see.  “I think it’s unfair to everyone on that ballot,” she said, adding that other people she has spoken with share her concern.

Indiana: Cass County prepares for new e-pollbooks | Pharos-Tribune

Cass County is preparing its new pollbook equipment for the upcoming primary election. The county was forced to seek out a new pollbook vendor after its former provider declined to go through a new certification process brought on through recent changes made by the Indiana General Assembly. After considering several quotes, the Cass County Election Board decided to get the new electronic pollbooks from Hart InterCivic, out of Austin, Texas. It is the same company that provides the county’s electronic equipment voters use to cast their ballots. The cost of the new electronic pollbooks and training for them comes to about $35,000. It was paid for through funds in the Cass County Clerk’s budget specifically earmarked for election equipment awarded from a former vendor that went out of business several years ago.

Indiana: Certification of Tippecanoe County’s voting system reveals, solves 2 computer glitches | Journal and Courier

Tippecanoe County’s certification of its electronic poll books was held up last week because of two glitches. The laptop computers and other hardware arrived at the out-of-state testing lab on March 7, and it should have been an hourlong test to certify the e-poll book, Tippecanoe County Clerk Christa Coffey said last week before she received notification of the certification on March 12. Valerie Kroeger, communication director for the Secretary of State, said late last week that the initial test of Tippecanoe County’s equipment showed two problems. “When VSTOP (Voting Systems Technical Oversight Program) did the testing, they found two issues,” Kroeger said. “When the computer went to scan the ID, it wasn’t working. And when they went to manually look it up, it didn’t work.”

Indiana: Tippecanoe County’s election hardware certified | Journal and Courier

On the same day that Tippecanoe County Clerk Christa Coffey’s grousings about the tedious electronic poll book certification process appeared in print, the lab testing the equipment OK’d the county’s election hardware. It’s not because of the media attention, she said. Her frustration stemmed from the fact that the county’s two models of computers that needed to be certified as capable of running the election software had been at the testing lab since Friday. She told the Election Board on Tuesday that it was a one-hour test, and it still hadn’t been completed. “It had been at the lab since Friday, so I’m not sure where the delay came in,” Coffey said. “(I received confirmation) yesterday afternoon that our two laptops that we use were approved for use and all the hardware — the four-port USB hub (and barcode scanner).”

Indiana: As primary voting looms, county eager for state to certify hardware | Journal and Courier

It all seemed so reasonable last year when the Indiana General Assembly adopted a law to require electronic poll books be certified. But theory and practice are often different things. “It has taken what was a reasonable process we’ve been using for five years and made it unreasonable,” Tippecanoe County Clerk Christa Coffey said, noting that primary voting starts here on April 8, and the county’s hardware has yet to be certified. The county has a digital database of registered voters. Each satellite voting site and vote center connects to the database through an electronic poll book — basically, laptop computers running software specifically designed for that specific purpose. When a voter signs in at a polling site, the electronic poll book immediately updates the database, indicating where and when the person voted. This prevents voter fraud, Coffey explained.

Indiana: Missed votes prompt new tallying system in Warrick County | Associated Press

A southwest Indiana county is developing a new accountability system using “archaic” methods after a discovery that thousands of votes weren’t counted in the 2012 general election. Nearly 3,800 early votes cast in Warrick County during the 2012 general election went uncounted because of an error by an electronic voting machine technician. The lost ballots included that of county Clerk Sarah Redman, who said her top priority this year is having every vote count – even if it means using an old-fashioned system of checks and balances. “When I say archaic, I mean old pen and paper that I want (them) to jot down. I don’t want to go by any reports that shoot out of a computer,” Redman told the Evansville Courier & Press.

Indiana: 3,700 Warrick County votes not counted in 2012 due to technical error | Evansville Courier & Press

More than 3,700 absentee ballots cast in-person in Warrick County for the November 2012 general election weren’t counted due to an error made by an electronic voting machine technician, county officials confirmed Monday. According to the Warrick County Clerk Sarah Redman’s office, Indianapolis-based MicroVote, which services the county’s electronic voting machines, found that one of its electronic technicians inadvertently incorrectly uploaded votes cast early at the Warrick County Election Office. The technician reportedly used a microchip card-reader that didn’t have the storage capacity to hold the total amount of early votes cast. The error resulted in only 10 percent of in-person, early votes being tallied by the county for the 2012 general election — leaving 3,791 Warrick County votes behind. “And nobody ever caught the error until Pat (King) went looking,” said Kevin Derr, chairman of the Warrick County Democrats Central Committee.

Indiana: Marion County holds off on voting machine upgrade | Indianapolis Star

The Marion County Election Board is holding off on plans to replace all voting machines this year because there’s no money to foot the cost and because its members have a more pressing issue on the horizon. Without money available for a purchase that could cost up to $15 million, Clerk Beth White and two party appointees say they will focus instead on the details needed to pull off a newly mandated centralized count of absentee ballots for the May 6 primary. The three-member board unanimously agreed to table the idea, for now, of soliciting proposals from voting equipment venders. White said the board could revive the issue after the primary. Plans called for any new equipment to be used for the first time in 2015, after this year’s elections.