Election reform

The issue: Overall, voting with new machines went well. Our view: But changes in law are needed to avoid problems.

Evansville Courier-Press  November 9, 2004

Heavy turnout and the unfamiliarity of new touch-screen voting machines slowed voting to a crawl in many precincts, but Vanderburgh County's Nov. 2 vote did not succumb to the worst-case scenarios some had predicted.

There were no widespread irregularities. A paper backup to the electronic votes was not needed, although many of us hope it becomes available in due time.  
All the concern about the electronic voting machines, however, shifted attention away from two problems that could also cause election nightmares. Those problems will remain no matter what voting system is used.

The most pressing involves mailed absentee ballots.

Indiana law requires a mailed ballot be sent under a wide range of circumstances to a voter who cannot make it to the polls on Election Day. Whether a voter actually qualifies for a mail ballot is immaterial. It would be impossible for election officials to check each of the mail ballot requests - about 4,500 this year in Vanderburgh County alone - to see if each voter meets the criteria.

Many of the ballots go to addresses within the county, where there's opportunity for all sorts of mischief. Investigations in the past have turned up plenty of evidence that a person who allegedly requested the ballot wasn't even aware he had done so. So who ended up casting his vote?

Mail ballots are necessary for voters in the military, away at college or on temporary work assignment away from home. But there is no legitimate reason to send them to addresses within the county of residence.

Voters who are too ill to go to the polls can arrange to be visited by a bipartisan two-person team. Those who will be out of the county on Election Day can vote in-person before that day.

In the 1970s, this newspaper uncovered widespread irregularities with mailed ballots. In response, the state Legislature changed the law to prohibit mailed ballots within the county.

But in the 1990s, the law was changed again, reopening the potential for abuse of mail ballots.

There's no reason for the Legislature to wait for somebody to document widespread fraud again before taking action.

This one's a no-brainer.

A tougher problem, but one which must also be addressed, is the burgeoning rolls of outdated voter registration information.

In Vanderburgh County, about 127,000 people are registered to vote. But there are only about 132,000 voting-age residents.

Registrations have grown by more than 6,000 a year for the last five years, while the population of Vanderburgh County has been virtually flat.

Soon there will be more voters than there are residents.

State and federal laws have conspired to create this situation.

Registration has become much easier. But getting somebody off the voting rolls - whether dead or moved away - has become much harder.

Voting officials have even complained that they can't remove from the list persons they know are dead. They have to wait for legal confirmation, which sometimes never comes.

Investigations by two Indiana newspapers have shown this is a statewide problem.

The Indianapolis Star last month documented more than 11,000 residents in the Indianapolis area who are registered to vote in more than one county.

It found 50 residents on the rolls who died more than six years ago. The newspaper even found former Gov. Frank O'Bannon, who died more than a year ago, was still registered to vote.

The Times of Northwest Indiana found 6,000 voters who were registered in both Lake and Porter counties.

The dangers are obvious.

As Vanderburgh County Clerk Marsha Abell suggests, "When you have people on the rolls who don't live here anymore ... you've just opened it up for fraud."

Because both federal and state laws are involved, this problem will be harder to solve than the mail ballot problem.

The Legislature this coming session ought to fix the easy one first and then get to work on the other.