Indiana cracks down on voter registrations
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Earlier in 2022, as part of the state’s voter maintenance program, every voter in Indiana should have received a nonforwardable postcard to verify their addresses.
If the postcard is returned because the person moved, then a second one is sent to the address on file with the post office.
If the second post card is returned, Cindy Mowery of the Marion County Board of Voters Registration explains what happens. “We mark you inactive and then we will put ‘check address’ as verification when you come to the polls.”
Here is how it works:
- Poll workers scan the voter’s government ID.
- If the registration is inactive, the poll inspector is called to verify the address of the voter.
- After January 2025, if people have not voted, their voting registration will be canceled but not removed from the statewide voter registration system. People who go to vote after January 2025 will be asked to prove they still live at the address listed on their voter registration card.
- If voters did not receive voter list maintenance postcards, the Indiana’s secretary of state’s election may ask a voter to fill out one to send in.
As of Tuesday morning, Mowery didn’t have an exact number of people listed in Marion County as “inactive.”
A poll worker told News 8 on Tuesday morning that more than a handful of inactive voters had come to the voting center on South Meridian Street.
Mowery said the calls to her office were from poll inspectors trying to work out voter registration issues as voters waited.
If an inactive registration voter does not vote in a general, special or primary election by January 2025, their registrations will be canceled.