Indiana given a ‘D’ grade on ballots
State’s voting-by-mail procedures get negative rating from Brookings
Indiana could use a tutoring session on vote-by-mail procedure.
The state has received a “D” grade in its process, according to a Brookings Institution report, but political scientists aren’t surprised and don’t anticipate the state to put much effort into improving.
“Indiana doesn’t bend over backward to make it easy to vote,” said Gerald Wright, political science professor at Indiana University Bloomington.
The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization that conducts research “that leads to new ideas for solving problems facing society,” recently released a scorecard of how each state approaches voting by mail in a pandemic.
The institution reviewed each state’s mail voting policies based on requesting, completing and submitting a mail-in ballot, according to the report.
The five states that conduct elections completely by mail — meaning all registered voters receive their ballots in the mail — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah all received “A” grades, according to the report.
The five states that conduct elections completely by mail — meaning all registered voters receive their ballots in the mail — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah all received “A” grades.
California, Nevada, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., all received an “A” as well, according
to the scorecard. Alabama was the only state to receive a “F.”
Indiana is among the nine states receiving a “D” grade, according to the report. Others included Louisiana, Kentucky and New Hampshire.
Out of possible 22 points, Indiana received five points, according to the report.
The state received three points because ballots don’t require a witness signature and two points for offering mail and inperson channels for voting, according to the report.
In both of those categories, the state received the highest number of possible points, according to the report.
The state earned one point because it allows voters to submit an application for an absentee ballot through three or more channels, but lost one point because mail ballots are due before polls close, according to the report.
The state lost out on the highest point categories: 10 points if a state automatically sends a ballot to voters or five points if all registered voters receive an application to vote absentee, according to the report.
Marjorie Hershey, a professor emerita of political science at Indiana University Bloomington, and Wright both said they are not surprised the Indiana received a D grade.
Indiana is among a small number of states that require a voter to “fit a category” to vote by mail, Hershey said.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, during the primary election, the state removed the requirement that an excuse was needed to cast an absentee ballot through the mail, but voters still had to request and return an application to vote by mail.
Recently the Indiana Election Commission has decided not to adjust vote by mail guidelines ahead of the general election. The reason the commission gave, Hershey said, was that during the primary the state was under a stay-athome order, but now it isn’t.
But, Hershey said, the state is continuing to encourage residents to take precautions, to avoid crowds, to wear masks and to stay home if possible.
“So its not like the circumstances are all that different between the primary and the general election. But, the legislature and the governor said they were different enough so that they’re going to consider this one to be a normal election whereas the primary was not. In other words, they don’t want to open up absentee balloting for any reason,” Hershey said.
Wright said Indiana has a history of if something works don’t change it. Given that, it’s likely the state isn’t changing vote by mail laws based on habit not out of malicious intent, he said.
“It’s just a lot of traditionalism in our politics,” Wright said. “They don’t want to jump on change.”
In a democracy, Hershey said there shouldn’t be “hurtles put in peoples way” to cast a ballot. But, the problem is that vote by mail has become a partisan issue, she said.
Hershey and Wright both said that Republicans believe that when voter turnout is higher Democrats win.
So, given that the legislature is currently Republican, the administration is pushing misinformation around voting by mail to decrease voter turnout for the party’s benefit, Wright said.
“I can understand why they would respond that way, but it’s not a democratic response. We’ve had a whole lot of court decisions and legislative decisions over time that suggest the right to vote should not be hampered,” Hershey said.
The Republicans theory to decrease voter turnout could work in their favor in the 2020 election because President Donald Trump has been more successful at energizing a smaller group of voters than Democratic nominee Joe Biden has been at energizing a larger group of supporters, Wright said.
“The more excited you are ... the more likely you are to vote,” Wright said.
The best way for Indiana to increase its vote by mail grade? Let voters who want to vote by mail do so, Hershey said.
“We’re one of the states that makes (vote by mail) harder because individual voters are on their own to figure out where to get a mail ballot, how to apply for it and then to get it back in in accordance with the rules,” Hershey said.
But, it is highly unlikely that each state in the country will one day receive an “A” for vote by mail procedures, both Hershey and Wright said.
Voting will always have “partisan connotations,” because those who find it easier to vote tend to come from the same social and economic background, which means they are more likely to vote for the same party, Hershey said. That means the opposite party will always push for ways to make voting easier while the other party is against it, she said.
Roughly 50 years ago, Democrats were less likely to vote because they were less educated and lower income, Hershey said. But, as Republicans “have made inroads” among less educated people, the relationship between education and voting “doesn’t hold as much as it used to,” she said.
“So, if the Republican Party were to follow its own interest, it would work really hard to increase the voting turnout because that would mean that more lower income, less educated people would go vote and that that would result in more Republicans going to vote,” Hershey said.