Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, is the Senate sponsor of the bill. (Courtesy Senate Republicans)
A hotly contested election bill with new citizenship checks and data buys could soon undergo edits.
House Bill 1264 has won praise from some who say it would improve election security. But it’s also rankled voting rights advocates — who fear it could disenfranchise some eligible voters — and deadlocked the bipartisan state clerks association.
“We r equire clean elections to maintain voter trust,” said Jonathan Bechtle of the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability. Indiana needs a similarly “clean” voting roll to do so, he told the Senate Elections Committee.
“You cannot sit here and pretend that red tape and extra steps don’t take their toll on people, especially people with limited resources, people between homes or without them,” MADVoters Indiana co-founder Chelsea McDonnel said.
Election security bill with citizenship, credit agency data provisions moves to House floor