Standing Up for Voters in Indiana’s Monroe County
Update: The Monroe County Board of Elections will address this issue at its September 2, 2021 Zoom meeting at 1:00 PM ET. We encourage voters and community organizations to attend the meeting and give public comment.
Indiana imposes some of the country’s strictest voting requirements, often creating particular barriers for Black, Latino, and Asian American citizens to cast their ballots.
This week, advocates with Chicago Lawyers’ Committee gave public comment to the Board of Commissioners in Monroe County, Indiana, detailing some of the problems experienced by voters in recent elections.
As the local coordinators for Election Protection, a nationwide non-partisan voter protection program that takes calls to the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, our staff and pro bono volunteers have answered calls from voters throughout Illinois and Indiana with questions and problems voting.
Some of the issues reported to 866-OUR-VOTE by community members in Monroe County, Indiana between 2016 and 2020 include:
Confusion about voter registration status, such as status showing up as inactive;
Questions about absentee ballots, such as requesting to vote by mail, ballots getting lost, or ballots getting delayed in the mail;
Questions about in-person polling place locations including from people who go to the wrong polling place;
Questions from people who have recently moved;
Questions about provisional voting;
Issues with early voting;
Incorrect notification of signature mismatch;
Questions about voter identification requirements;
Disability access and health issues, including calls from people with mobility issues or autoimmune disease;
Problems with very long lines; and
Inquiries from college students wondering where they are permitted to register and vote.
During the midterm election on November 6, 2018, we received multiple calls from voters whose polling places had run out of ballots. Up to half of the polling places in Monroe County suffered from ballot shortages in the afternoon due to heavy voter turnout. Following Clerk Browne’s filing of a request to extend polling-place hours, the Monroe County Circuit Court ordered polling-place hours extended county-wide to ameliorate problems of long lines and insufficient ballots at polling sites.
Access to voting by people of color is a particular concern in Monroe County, given the large student population as well as persistent white supremacy in Indiana. State leaders should be improving voting conditions instead of perpetuating the status quo. The time is ripe for local communities to invest resources to strengthen election systems, such as planning appropriate space for voters and election administrators alike.