Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, speaks in committee on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. His poll watcher proposal has been hailed as an election security measure. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Lawmakers want to make it easier for candidates in primary elections to name election observers, also known as poll watchers.
A political party’s state chair or county chairs can appoint watchers to precincts in which the party is on the ballot. They can inspect a precinct election officer’s work, receive a signed summary of the vote, stay at the polls until tabulations are done, accompany an inspector and judge in delivering the tabulation and election returns, report potential violations and more.
Party candidates can get their own watchers appointed, but current law requires at least 26% of candidates from the same political party to sign a written statement.
That’s “an incredibly high hill to climb,” said Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton.
His legislation, Senate Bill 199, drops the threshold. Just two or more candidates would have to sign the statement.
Hoosier Janet Vernon called the proposal a “commonsense improvement” in testimony before the Senate Elections Committee on Tuesday, which Gaskill leads.
“When party chairs fail to act, it’s unrealistic to expect multiple candidates to coordinate and take on this responsibility during the demanding election season,” she said.
She and others asserted the change would boost election integrity.
Penny Bigelow, representing the Election Integrity Plus Committee, said that she and her husband, James, first counted ballots during the 2016 election. She alleged “egregious voter fraud,” recounting how in deep-blue Marion County, Democrat poll workers so far outnumbered Republican ones that few could operate in bipartisan teams.
Her organization recruited more than 200 Republicans to serve in various positions for Marion County’s elections last year, including as poll watchers. Bigelow — who was decked out in crisp red, white and blue attire — said watchers ensure a “fair and honest” election.
David Waters, representing the conservative Marion County Tea Party, said he witnessed an Indianapolis police officer “interfer(ing)” with a candidate “electioneering” at a Marion County vote center. Indiana prohibits electioneering within 50 feet of polling place doors.
Waters said a poll watcher could’ve helped “substantiate” his allegations, adding, “I’m just an average citizen, so what I see doesn’t carry so much weight.”
Gaskill, for his part, said he hoped to even the scales.
When asked if a specific situation inspired the bill, he said that contested primary races have become become more and more common throughout his decades in politics.
“A well-intended county chairman, of either party, is probably going to have a preference of one candidate or the other in a contested race,” Gaskill said. “And so, this just gives candidates a little bit (of a) lower fence to climb over to be able to have a watcher.”
Asked if watchers are educated on what is — or isn’t — a violation, Gaskill noted that attorneys are often appointed as watchers. He advised that Hoosiers serving as watchers read the state’s election code.
The Association of the Clerks of Circuit Courts of Indiana and Association of Indiana Counties testified as neutral, but asked lawmakers for better communication between party chairs and clerks about who watchers are, as well as visual identifiers like lanyards.
The committee unanimously voted to move the legislation, 9-0. It next goes to the full Senate for consideration.
Changing the narrative
The panel also unanimously advanced Senate Joint Resolution 17, a proposed constitutional amendment renaming the state’s elected “auditor” position to “comptroller.”
Lawmakers put the name change into 2023’s budget and edited references to the office in 2024 technical amendments, but haven’t pursued a constitutional revision until now.
Changing the constitution takes years. Proposed language must pass in two successive general assemblies – meaning an election must occur between the two approvals – before appearing on the ballot the following year. Voters seal the deal.
Past officeholder Tera Klutz said “comptroller” better describes the job. She said the office doesn’t perform audits — instead, it balances the state’s checkbook, distributes tax dollars, provides year-end financial reporting and pays state employees.
Sen. Cyndi Carrasco, the Indianapolis Republican who authored the proposed constitutional amendment, also put forth legislation tweaking the office’s name on the 2026 ballot. It would appear as “state comptroller (auditor of state).” Senate Bill 221 edits several other references to the office in Indiana Code. It was advanced unanimously.
The bill, Carrasco said, “is what I believe to be last step necessary in order to … finish the changes that started a couple of sessions ago.”
.. And the U.S. Constitution?
The committee also approved, on partisan lines, Senate Joint Resolution 21. It applies to Congress for an amendment-proposing constitutional convention to establish term limits in the U.S. House and Senate.
But to trigger a constitutional convention, two-thirds of the states — 34 — must also apply. So far, just nine have approved term limits-focused applications, and 19 more have approved applications that include term limits and other topics.
The Indiana resolution specifies that the application could only be aggregated with others dealing with the same topic.
An early January survey of 505 registered Indiana voters found that 84% support congressional term limits and 82% would want their state lawmakers to support related proposals, according to U.S. Term Limits. Scott Rasmussen conducted the survey online on the group’s behalf, while RMG Research did field work. The full sample’s margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Former Rep. Mike Speedy – recently tapped as Indiana’s next secretary of business affairs, and who also leads U.S. Term Limits’ Indiana chapter — said term limits would make members of Congress “more responsive” and create a “sense of urgency.” Speedy lost his Statehouse seat during an unsuccessful bid for Congress last year.
Julia Vaughn, leader of elections watchdog Common Cause Indiana, said her group supports reasonable term limits, but opposed calling a convention to do it. She cautioned that delegates to the convention aren’t limited to specific topics, and that Indiana would have little ability to control what happens.
Barbara Tully, representing the League of Women Voters’ Indiana chapter and Indiana Vote by Mail, suggested that Indiana lawmakers instead impose term limits on themselves.
Author Rep. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, said he didn’t expect so much opposition. He tried to quell concerns, telling the audience that he didn’t expect a convention to actually be called. Instead, the proposal was a way to “make a statement” and “force Congress to act.”
Lawmakers’ last three attempts — authored by members from both Indiana’s House and Senate, and by Republicans and Democrats — died.
Could the application go further this year?
Newly inaugurated Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith led the Indiana chapter of U.S. Term Limits — a nonprofit advocating for congressional term limits — until last month.
Three-fourths of the states, or 38, must ratify the changes resulting from a convention.
