Feeling confident in elections, whether voting in-person or by mail

In recent general elections, the high-water mark for turnout was 65% in 2020. In 2022, that had dipped to 40%. And primary turnout is even worse. (Getty Images)

Will you be voting in this fall’s election? You can bet I will, and I know my vote will be counted. And matter.

Did you know in 2019 a city council race in Columbus was decided by one vote? And that race also swung the political control of the body?

One vote! Imagine if you lived there and didn’t vote. I don’t want to have that kind of regret.

I hope other Hoosiers have the same sense of confidence I have, despite baseless claims in recent years of rampant election fraud.

In Indiana, voter registration isn’t the problem. We have 4.7 million Hoosiers registered, according to the Indiana Secretary of State’s Office. That is about 90% of those eligible to vote. Yes, there are likely some people who have moved, died or have duplicate entries in the state system. And there is an established process to winnow those out. But we don’t do it lightning quick because taking away a person’s right to vote is serious business.

Indiana’s issue is turnout.

In recent general elections, the high-water mark for turnout was 65% in 2020. In 2022, that dipped to 40%. And primary turnout is even worse.

Postal chief insists to Congress that mail-in ballots will get delivered in time

I am glad lawmakers have created the 30-day early voting period. Honestly, it means no one has an excuse for not casting their ballots.

There has occasionally been chatter about reducing the length of early voting. In 2022, Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales walked back a proposal to cut early voting as well as softened his previous comments on the 2020 election.

It makes no sense to take away an option in a state that has safe and secure elections.

Then there is mail-in voting. It’s technically called absentee voting in Indiana, but you can do it early, in-person or by mail.

The Secretary of State’s Office ran a report for ICC showing how many mail-in votes Indiana has had in the last four general elections. In 2016 it was 155,582, or about 5.5%. That rose to 6.5% in 2018.

The 2020 general election is a bit of an anomaly because state elections officials removed perquisites to vote by mail as a way to ease fears around the pandemic. That year more than 563,000 Hoosiers voted by mail, or 18.3%.

More recently, the percentage dropped down to about 8.4% in 2022.

I personally enjoy the camaraderie of voting in person, but election days can be hectic. So early voting has been a great option for me over the years.

But there are lots of folks who are introverted and would prefer filling out their ballot in the privacy of their home. There are also students who live out of state; senior citizens who struggle to get out; disabled Hoosiers that have no way to get to the polls. Heck, in some states you don’t even need a reason. And in 8 states, all votes are cast by mail.

I’m not afraid of mail-in voting. The Bipartisan Policy Center said mail voting has been in use since it helped soldiers cast ballots during the Civil War.

Of course, there are people who break the law – both voting in person and by mail. There is no way to stop people from being stupid. But most of the examples bandied about were stopped by election officials enforcing the security processes already in place to thwart scofflaws. Or they were isolated in nature.

It’s not a perfect system but it’s pretty damn good, and I will stand by it and participate wholeheartedly.