Senate kills early voting cuts, closed primary bills

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Republican senators killed two flashy election proposals and significantly scaled back a third after letting the trio languish on the chamber’s daily calendar for more than two weeks.

Legislation slashing early in-person voting days and closing primary elections to unaffiliated voters garnered mixed committee testimony in early February before moving to the Senate for consideration. But both died quietly on Wednesday when their authors declined to call them down before a key deadline.

Numerous amendments had been filed on both of the bills.

Hoosier voters can currently cast ballots in person for 28 days ahead of elections. Sen. Gary Byrne’s Senate Bill 284 would’ve cut that timeframe to two weeks.

Spokespeople told the Capital Chronicle that the bill “didn’t have enough support” to move forward and that Byrne, R-Byrneville, “is not going to pursue it any further this session.”

At a Feb. 3 committee hearing, a Secretary of State’s Office representative — the only supportive witness — spoke of low participation in the first two-week period and said Indiana should instead grow the number of early voting locations. At the time, Byrne told the Capital Chronicle that he hoped to add provisions redirecting savings toward that effort. Voter-rights advocates and local election officials, meanwhile, worried the change could worsen already-long and -slow early voting lines.

Another effort would’ve ended Indiana’s current “open” primary election system.

Voters currently can ask for either a Democratic or Republican Party ballot and don’t need to “register” with a party to do so. Author Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, indicated he’s not done trying to change that practice.

“It’s a different concept for people in Indiana,” Gaskill told the Capital Chronicle. “It’s pretty common around the country. And it’s just going to take people some getting used to before they warm up to it.”

His Senate Bill 201 would have added text to voter registration forms asking Hoosiers to choose their political parties and warning that affiliation is required to vote in a primary election. It also would’ve required county election officials to affiliate registered voters with either the Democratic or Republican Party based on their last primary election votes, and would’ve created a way for voters to change their affiliations.

Municipal elections move scaled back

Legislation moving municipal elections to the same even-numbered years as presidential elections got major edits Wednesday.

Senators accepted Gaskill’s amendment limiting Senate Bill 355‘s changes to towns — minus the 200-person town of Vernon. Legislative bodies for towns of more than 10,000 residents could vote to opt out and keep their elections on odd-numbered years, while city councils could vote to opt into the change.

Gaskill said cities and large towns already hold primary elections, but many smaller towns use conventions instead. He called those “difficult to run, confusing to voters and typically (with) very, very low turnout, even less turnout than primary elections.”

“This will improve voter turnout and it will simplify things for the voters as well,” Gaskill continued. “But then it will also save money because we won’t be running town conventions in the primaries.”

Vernon, however, would keep its unique status quo. Its 1851 town charter — from when it was incorporated by the state of Indiana — allows it to have a mayor serving two-year terms, without primary elections or other partisan restrictions. Vernon holds elections “unlike any others in the state,” the town’s website boasts.

“There was no desire on my part to interfere at all with a piece of history that Indiana could be proud of,” Gaskill said.

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: [email protected].