Published: March 13, 2008 11:52 pm            

TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: Indiana needs vote centers

Don’t let partisan battle kill voter-friendly proposal

TERRE HAUTE — In the area of election reform, we have not often been a fan of Secretary of State Todd Rokita’s initiatives. Case in point: Indiana’s voter ID law, a solution in search of a problem.

But we’re standing beside Rokita on the issue of allowing communities to create vote centers, which present the double benefit of making elections cheaper and the voting process more convenient.

Unfortunately, legislation proposed in this session of the Indiana General Assembly appears dead because of a partisan stalemate.

Democrats and Republicans seem to agree on the benefits of vote centers, which were tested with good results as part of a pilot program in two Hoosier counties last year. The hangup is on an accompanying proposal to allow voters to cast absentee ballots by mail without giving an excuse. Current law requires anyone voting absentee by mail to meet certain provisions, such as working through voting hours. No such excuse is necessary if a voter casts an absentee ballot in person before Election Day.

The partisan split has Republicans such as Rokita favoring the vote centers, but opposing the change in the absentee ballot process. Democrat legislators seem to favor both voter-friendly proposals, but want them included in the same legislation. The GOP legislators insist the proposals be handled separately, presumably because they may want to defeat the absentee ballot change.

Unless some dramatic compromise occurs in the waning hours of the session, it appears Hoosiers will get neither.

While we understand the Democrats’ political strategy, we prefer to see the ideas separated so that at least the vote-center initiative can pass and take affect soon. Let the no-excuse absentee ballot battle be fought another day.

Any progress toward improving Indiana’s voting process is good progress. The state’s current laws are distinctive in that they make voting more difficult than it needs to be, whether by requiring voters to register or re-register a full month before Election Day, or by requiring voter IDs at the polling place.

Other issues aside, we agree with Rokita’s stance on vote centers and urge area legislators to support the proposal if resurrected before session’s end.

        

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