As elections approach, local election officials are urging individuals to be vigilant when filling out ballots and applications for mail-in ballots.
(Steve Burns/WTIU)
As elections approach, local officials are urging individuals to be vigilant when filling out ballots and applications for mail-in ballots.
In Indiana, not everyone is eligible for vote-by-mail. They must fall under one of twelve acceptable categories, which include criteria such as working all day on election day.
Brent Stinson is the Deputy Director for Administration at The Marion County Election Board. He said people sometimes forget to specify why they are requesting to vote by mail.
“People sometimes forget to check one of those boxes,” he said. “And the voter themselves has to check that we can't assume a reason why somebody is applying.”
Another mistake the board sees on vote-by-mail applications is problems with signatures.
“The most common mistakes we receive would be no signature or an incomplete signature on the application,” he said. “When somebody submits that to us, we have to compare that application to their ballot when it returns. And if it's missing, or if it's deemed by a bipartisan team not to match, then we have a whole other legal process that we have to go through.”
He urges those receiving a mail-in ballot to ensure their mailing address is up to date, particularly if they need their ballot mailed to their workplace or somewhere else besides their residential address. He also says an updated date of birth and phone number are helpful.
“If you include your date of birth, that's going to help us find you get your ballot quicker,” he said. “And then the phone number is just in case we do have speak to you about an issue that we find, we can reach out to you with the most up-to-date phone number and help speed that curing process up a little bit rather than trying to communicate through mail.”
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For in-person voting, Stinson explained this is much more straightforward as there are people and machines checking ballots on site.
He urges those going in-person, though, to bring a valid ID and ensure their voter registration is updated in advance.
Under Indiana’s 2005 voter ID law, your photo identification must meet four criteria: it must display your photo, your name (though, it doesn’t have to be a perfect match), an expiration date and either be current or have expired sometime after the date of the last General Election, and issued by the state of Indiana or the U.S. government.
This could include an Indiana driver’s license, a U.S. passport, Indiana State Identification Card, or military ID card. Student IDs at Indiana universities also work, so long as they meet all other criteria. However, this does not apply to private universities.
