Elections bill would strike down student IDs as voting option

Senators voted on Monday to move a proposal that some worry will discourage college students from voting and add additional duties to local county voter registration offices. The final vote was 6-3, with one Republican joining both Democrats to vote against the measure.

Senate Bill 10 has multiple provisions, but the proposal to curb the use of student IDs as valid voter identification attracted the most testimony.

Bill author Sen. Blake Doriot, R-Goshen, said student identification cards weren’t subject to the same “rigor” as driver’s licenses.

“The last thing I want to do is keep people from voting. The first thing I want to do is to keep people from voting who shouldn’t be voting, who don’t have the proper ID,” said Doriot.

Opponents noted that a voter still has to meet state requirements to register; the ID at the time of voting is only to ensure the person is who they say they are.

Only a fraction of states bar the use of student IDs to access the voting booth — roughly a dozen, according to the Campus Vote Project. Over a dozen states don’t require any form of identification in order to vote.

Indiana University student Daniel Jenkins, the voter registration director for his campus chapter of College Democrats, opposed the bill.

“For many of these students, voting in Indiana is their only option — as some states make it very difficult or impossible to vote by mail,” Jenkins said.

He shared that a friend from Texas’ absentee voter registration application was rejected, though she would be hundreds of miles from home on Election Day.

“Dejected, she registered here in Indiana and was able to vote only because of her student ID, as it was her only Indiana-issued ID. If this legislation was in effect, she likely would not have been able to vote at all,” Jenkins said.

In a state with near-rock bottom voter participation, opponents lamented that the bill would further discourage potential voters.

“We don’t make it easy for people to vote,” summarized Sen. J.D. Ford, a Democrat from Indianapolis who voted against the bill. “I think this bill goes to show you that Indiana is not a voter-friendly state.”

Kegan Prentice, the legislative director of the Secretary of State’s Office, testified in support of the bill, including the language on student IDs.

“We are not against college students voting. We’d like to see more of them vote, actually,” Prentice said, noting that a voter registration cannot be denied due to one’s student status. “We want to ensure only residents of Indiana vote and students are using a form of identification that’s more reliable and we can use to confirm eligibility.”

In addition to the student ID ban, the bill would no longer require the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to ask customers about registering to vote or updating their address and increase the number of times counties must perform voter registration maintenance.

Doriot said the BMV registration question netted not just unregistered voters but also non-citizens, who are not permitted to vote by state and federal laws.

County voter registration offices would also have to mail notices to registered voters who haven’t voted in the two most recent general elections and local public health departments shall — rather than may — share death certificates with the offices.

Testimony showed the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office already mails the same postcards to registered voters.

Exploring another IDEA?

Under the proposal, Indiana officials would ask other state officeholders to join the Indiana Data Enhancement Association (IDEA), pitched as a method to compare voter rolls across state lines.

Lawmakers directed the state to withdraw from the interstate compact known as ERIC — short for the Electronic Registration Information Center — years ago, after conservative pushback to voter outreach directives. Several states have tried, but failed, to establish a conservative version; the underlying bill pulls Indiana out of one such short-lived effort known as Crosscheck from Kansas, which was struck down in court.

Two dozen states and Washington D.C. pool their resources together for ERIC.

Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, wondered if IDEA could withstand court challenges where other efforts had failed — though he said he supported the initial idea when it was proposed by a former secretary of state.

“I had great respect and hope for (former) Sec. (Connie) Lawson to make that move happen but there’s been no real effort at all that’s been successful to make that come to fruition,” said Walker, who voted against the bill. “So I’m just questioning whether that’s still even our best opportunity.”

In response, Doriot indicated that it might be “time to revisit” a data sharing agreement with other states, since Indiana doesn’t currently participate in any.

Voting advocate Barbara Tully, with Indiana’s chapter of the League of Women Voters and Indiana Vote by Mail, said that no other states had laws compelling them to join IDEA and likened it to “a wheel that already exists.”

“But Indiana has obstinately decided to forge its own path, when there are proven methods other states use to more accurately maintain voter rolls,” Tully said. “ERIC has been vilified nationally, but remains a useful tool for data sharing between members. There is no reason to believe that IDEA data-matching will be more reliable than Crosscheck.”

Brad King, the Republican co-director of the Indiana Election Division, said that membership in ERIC “came with a price,” noting that the state stopped participating after the organization’s board directed states to spend money on voter outreach.

Moving municipal elections

The panel also approved a bill that would move municipal elections — from mayors down to town councils — to the same even-numbered year as presidential elections.

Several mayors opposed Senate Bill 355, which does have an opt-out provision.

Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood said municipal government handles fire, police, roads and other tangible everyday matters that impact Hoosiers’ daily lives.

He said holding those elections during a presidential year is “effectively drowning out the voices and concerns of our communities.”

Wood said off-year elections provide meaningful voter education and that the bill is a disservice to local government.

Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen said the national topics of presidential elections will take over municipal races that have nothing to do with their jobs — from abortion to immigration.

Prentice supported the bill on behalf of the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office. He said there would be millions saved by shifting the elections and voter turnout would jump from 20% in municipal cycles to more than 50% in even-numbered years.

The bill passed 7-2 and now moves to the full Senate.

Niki Kelly contributed to this story.

The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.