A bill signed by Indiana Governor Mike Pence will affect the way Hoosiers vote in November’s General Election.
Those changes were reviewed during Monday morning’s Pulaski County Election Board meeting. According to a letter sent by the Secretary of State to local county clerk’s offices, the change still allows Indiana residents to vote a straight party ticket. Board Member Laura Bailey says there will be one change.
“The condensed version is: you may continue to vote a straight ticket, however, it will not transfer down to local election offices,” says Bailey. “So it will do national and state, but then you have to go down to your local offices and mark those individually, or they will get no vote.”
This is considered a major alteration according to the Election Board due to the number of Pulaski County residents that vote a straight ticket when they cast their ballot.
According to the discussion, there will not be a notification of the change when a citizen goes to cast their ballot in November.
Election Board member Jon Frain says they have to get the word out as November draws closer.
“We need to make sure people are aware,” says Frain. “It does not affect the primary election whatsoever. It does affect our fall election so we’ll probably not say too much more about it now, but we’ll continue to get information out leading up to the fall election because we’d hate to confuse people.”
The Election Board clarified that they had nothing to do with changes implemented at the state level. Bailey called the change a “disservice” to voters.
Those still planning to cast a ballot during May 3rd’s Primary Election will not be affected by the changes.
