Indiana House Republicans want to identify more people who might not be eligible to vote with legislation considered by a House committee this week.
The bill, HB 1264, takes aim at cleaning up voter rolls in multiple ways. It allows the state to compare information from credit agencies against voter registration records, in an effort to find out if someone has moved.
Brad King, Republican co-director of the Indiana Election Division, said that credit bureau data will be the most accurate info possible.
“In my belief, in my heart of hearts, Indiana’s elections are secure,” King said. “But there is always room for improvement.”
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But Matthew Kochevar, Democratic co-general counsel of the election division, said it’s not even clear what information the credit agencies would send.
“How accurate is their data?” Kochevar said. “We want to make sure we have accurate information if we’re ever comparing it to do voter list maintenance.”
The bill would also require the state’s voter registration system to flag people’s addresses that appear to be nonresidential, like a business address. It would then require counties to investigate if the voter actually lives at the address on file.
No voter could be removed from the rolls without first being notified, multiple times, through the mail. And even then, two federal election cycles would have to pass without them voting to be removed.
Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.