Indiana is fortunate to be a solidly red state. In November 2020, the vote for President Donald Trump was overwhelming. Down ballot, the vote for Congressional offices, state offices, and local offices went to Republican candidates with few exceptions.
But I wonder. I wonder how aggressively Indiana state voter rolls are examined and ineligible “voters” removed? Other states have been in the news with descriptions of all sorts of issues. Judicial Watch has sued several states to require purging of ineligible names. What “voters” have been found?
Illegal aliens
Dead people
People who moved out of state
People listing non-habitable addresses
People under voting age
And then there are the huge issues with people voting in more than one state, ballots counted multiple times, phony ballots, and finally, interference from afar with the electronic voting and tabulating machines.
We in Indiana may think we are absent these issues, but are we? Have we looked?
Then there is a question of competency in the conducting of the elections on the county level. Howard County is a case in point. Before the beginning of early voting, there was a “training” session for Judges and Inspectors, the people responsible for enforcing the rules at polling places. The training session was woefully inadequate. The county clerk talked for something over 2 hours while flipping through pages of her 3” binder. The binder was filled with official forms and instructions for Judges and Inspectors.
The problem was the binders to hand to attendees were not ready. They would not be until a couple of days before voting began. The attendees never handled one piece of paper. No poll worker was given hands on training with the electronic poll books.
Then came opening day for early voting. The polling sites were set up by volunteers, the County Clerk, and the Democrat member of the County Election Board. Unfortunately, no provisions for disabled voters who could not stand at the voting booth were included in pre-planning. There were many such voters.
Then there were the problems with the devices used. Scanning did not work all the time. Hand typing became then required. The signature pad on the electronic poll book was another problem. Any scribble was fine. How is this anything close to signature matching?
There is more. Machine counts and hand counts did not match. Ballots were stored overnight in a less than secured area. Ballot pick up protocol was violated.
Finally, and maybe the most serious, was in one polling site the wife of the Democrat candidate for Treasurer came into the polling place. She and the Democrat representative on the Election Board conversed while standing inside. This action was blatantly illegal. Conversation with her, the County Clerk, and the Democrat EB representative continued even outside but inside the polling place boundary. This wife even pulled out a poll worker to talk to and give instructions. The Republican member of the county Election Board took no action.
When later several issues were called to the attention of the Republican County Chairwoman, she did nothing but complain about the communications to her. She said this was not her responsibility.
So, this small example in one county in Indiana shows this state is not free of voting problems. There are several months now until the voting in 2022. It is time to tighten down everything. Get rid of the electronic devices, go back to the paper poll books where signatures can be truly compared, require people to vote in the precinct of their residence, and count votes by hand. It worked before and it can work again.
What happened in the 2020 election can never be allowed to happen again in any state including Indiana.