Indiana lawmakers want to regulate digitally altered images in campaign ads, restrict when schools can put referendums on the ballot and require more address verification documents from first-time voters.
But the most contentious of voting-related bills this session is a proposal to require elections officials to compare voter rolls with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ list of temporary credentials, which are given to non-citizens.
Here are the bills progressing through the legislative process this session that would impact Indiana elections. These bills have until Feb. 5 to pass the House.
House Bill 1264: Address verification and citizenship
Author: State Rep. Timothy Wesco, R-Osceola
What it does:
- Gives the Secretary of State the ability to contract with a third party to compare the voter rolls to commercially available data, such as from a credit agency like Experian, to check for variations in voter addresses.
- Requires voting officials to compare the voter rolls with the BMV’s list of people who have temporary credentials, and notify counties of any matches. The idea here is to find noncitizens who registered to vote. That person would then have 30 days to provide proof of citizenship.
- Require the state voter registration system to have a feature that flags nonresidential addresses such as a homeless shelter or business. County voting officials would then investigate these flagged addresses to determine whether a voter actually lives there.
- Requires first-time voters registering in person to provide ID or bill proving their address, if they do not have a driver’s license or the last four digits of their social security number.