Bills, which cut the oath of polling counters in the election division and in the election division, dropped the Indiana Senate Election Committee on Monday.
The committee also heard a bill about the school board elections, but decided to hold the bill in a week.
Preliminary voting
Written by Senate Bill 284, Sen Gary Biren, R-Bayernillay, and Sen Mike Gasker, R-Pandalton, will reduce the initial in-trading period to 7 days.
The committee cast 6-3 votes on a revised bill, which will reduce in-commercial voting for the current 28 days to 14 days.
Director of Lake County Election and Voter Registration Board Mitchell Fazman testified against the bill as voters in Lake County have actually started using early in-tradition voting in recent years.
Fajman said that he disagrees with one point, the committee said that fewer people first voted in early 14 days early in-tradition voting. County election officials should have a voice in their early-in-Person voting, he said, because they know the trends of their voters best.
In Lake County, 90,049 voters voted for the initial person in the 2024 presidential election, Fazman said, while 111,098 votes were cast on the election day. Many people will be busy to vote for him in two weeks or a week, he said.
“We like the entire amount of time. We want to do more, ”Fazman said. “Initial voting works for a purpose. We are one of the worst (states) in the nation with voters voting, and here we are trying to limit it. ,
The common reason, Indiana Executive Director Julia Vaughan testified against the bill. He said that Indiana has an advantage for voters offering an initial 28 -day -old voting period.
“This is one of the good things that do well with Indiana elections,” Von said. “It is not enough to go from a month to two weeks.”
Vaughan said that popularity has increased in early in-commercial voting states. Like the Marion County, some counties have stated that people wait for 2 to 3 hours to vote for in-purses, he said.
If the bill is signed in the law, Vauan said it would affect the disabled and elderly voters who have used early-in-Persen voting in recent years.
“We don’t need less initial voting, we need it more,” Von said. “There is no reason to do this.”
About a dozen people testified against the bill, Fajman and Vauan said. Vauan said that a representative of the state secretary testified in favor of the bill.
As the Bill proceeds through the Senate, Vauan said that the common reason Indiana officials will call the MLAs to encourage to vote against the bill. If it passes through the Senate, Vaughan said that he would continue to fight the bill as it runs through the House.
Ideally, Vauan said, the bill is thrown out.
Von said, “It takes us backwards and voters do not have to go backwards.”
Ballot counter oath
Sen Dan Darnulak, R-Higland, wrote the Senate Bill 186, for which the Circuit Court Clerk will need to give a copy of each oath signed on the provisional ballot on the election division 30 days after the election.
If passed, the bill will require a copy of all the provisional polling pledge for the 2024 general election, which will be submitted to the Election Division after 31 August.
In preparing the bill, Dernulak said that he worked with the co-director of the state secretary Diego Morales and Brad King, the co-director of the Indiana Election Division. Dernulc testified before the committee that he said that he wrote the bill after coming to the residents to talk about more transparency in the election process.
“This bill came from a group of people who came to me. They would like to see a little more transparency, all this, ”said Dernulak. “There is nothing that anyone is working or bad, it is just a little more transparency.”
Dernulc said that those who contacted him wanted “more items in the bill”, but thought it would be best to start with the ballot counter oath.
Sen JD Ford, D-Indianpolis said that residents have the option to register requests for records with their local clerk office for election documents.
Ford asked if there was an issue in Lake County which required an election division to review the record. Dernulak said that no and it was said that the purpose of the bill is to increase transparency.
Fajman testified against the bill. He organized a 13 -by -19 envelope and indicated that a ballot counter signs the oath down.
“This is not just an ordinary thing that I can throw into a copy machine,” Fazman said. “I can’t scan it because it has found other envelopes, so it will not go through a scanner.”
The bipartisan county election board reviews all the provisional ballot papers, Fazman said.
“This is a waste of money. I know the people about whom he is talking about transparency. They have not come to our office to ask for this. If they had done, I will happily show them, ”Fazman said.
Carolker, a poll worker from a highland, said that she supports the bill because she likes the information to be known for the purpose of knowing, for the purpose of knowing the other or the other, no matter how seriously this item Take it from. ”
Bill voted in favor of seven Republican members with party lines from Committee 7-2 and voted against two Democratic members.
School board election
Senate Bill 287, Burn, Sen. Cris Garton, R-Charlstown, and Sen Black Doriyat, written by R-Gosh, will convert the school board election process into other elections, including a primary and general election.
The bill will also require members of the school board to select a political party, which will change the current law that determines that the school board candidates should have nonpartison.
Under the bill, members of the school board will be paid up to 10% of the lowest starting salary of the teacher employed in the districts, which will transfer the current $ 2,000 payment.
Biren testified before the committee on Monday that he filed a bill to increase democracy in the school board election process.
Joel Hand, the American Federation of Teachers Indiaa and the Indiana alliance, representing both for public education, were one of the 24 people who spoke against the Senate Bill 287. Hand said that organizations oppose the bill because those working in education should focus on students and not politics.
Indiana has experienced with biased schools, the hand said. Prior to 1960, a township trustee – who was selected – would appoint the school district superintendents, he said, which made the superintendent a politically appointed position.
Vaughan said that changing the requirements for the candidates for the school board will not be better school boards.
“If it is not broken, do not fix it,” Von said.
John O’Neill, policy and research coordinator for the Indiana State Teachers Association, said that politics should not be put in the school board race.
“We believe it will stop the candidates who really care about their community rather than going to the issues of the party, national or state campaign party,” O’Neel said.
A representative of the Foundation for Government Accountability was the only public voice of support for the bill.
When voters cast their ballots, they choose people in other races on a large scale on the basis of political party, but fewer people vote in the school board race because they do not know that those candidates are standing politically, He said. This bill will improve the voting of the school board voters, he said.
The chairman of the committee Gasker said that the bill will be heard for amendment and votes next week.