Student Voting Guide | Indiana
Registration
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/ (registration form available online)
http://indianavoters.in.gov/PublicSite/OVR/Introduction.aspx (online registration)
The registration deadline is 29 days before Election Day,[1] and mail-in applications must be postmarked by that date.[2] Indiana allows online voter registration if you have an Indiana driver’s license or ID card. You may register to vote if you will be 18 by the next general, municipal or special election[3] and you may vote in a primary election if you will be 18 by the next general election.[4]
Residency
At School. If you move to a college address in Indiana with the intention of making it your principal home and you do not intend to move back to the place you lived previously, you can establish voting residency in Indiana. Indiana law describes voting residence as your “true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment”; the place to where you intend to return after being away.[5] The Secretary of State has said that the “permanent residence” of students “who have no intention of returning to [the address that they traveled from to attend school]” will be “the community where they are attending school.” [6] However, “there is no rule on legal residence that applies to all college students. Each case and each individual is different.”[7] Residency equals domicile under Indiana law, and so each voter can have only one residence.[8]
At Home. Students who lived in Indiana but moved to another state for school, and who wish to establish or keep their Indiana voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ address), should have no problem doing so unless they have already registered to vote in another state. Like all states, Indiana allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the county or state to attend school. The only way you will lose this residency is if you “abandon” it by asserting residency in a new state.[9] While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment of residency in Indiana, some judges or officials might view it as such.
Effect on Driver’s Licenses. If you are driving in Indiana, you should be aware that if you register to vote in Indiana you are automatically considered a resident under the driver’s license and registration laws.[10] If you already have an Indiana driver’s license, you have 30 days from when you become a resident to change your address;[11] if you are coming from out of state, you have 60 days from when you become a resident to obtain an Indiana driver’s license.[12]
Challenges to Residency. If the county registration office denies your registration on the basis of your residency, they have to notify you of that denial and the reason for it.[13] At the polls on Election Day, your eligibility can be challenged by official poll workers and by partisan challengers,[14] but it cannot be challenged solely on the basis that you are a student or that you live in campus housing.[15] If your eligibility is challenged, you will have to vote by provisional ballot.[16] That ballot will be counted unless someone provides additional evidence that you are ineligible to the county election board.[17]
Identification
Indiana requires all voters who vote in person, either on Election Day or during early voting, to show a current, valid photo ID issued by the state of Indiana or the federal government.[18] For ID to count, it must: 1) have your name as it is in the registration records; 2) have a photo of you; 3) have an expiration date, which must be current or expired after the date of the most recent general election; and 4) be issued by the U.S. government or the state of Indiana.[19] Student IDs from public universities will only count if they have an expiration date on them; many Indiana schools IDs do not. (Student IDs from private universities will not count at all, because they are not issued by the state.)
Absentee voters who meet the requirements to vote by mail do NOT have to show ID, but absentee voters who vote in-person must meet the ID requirements described above.[20]
If you do not have a valid photo ID, you will have to cast a provisional ballot,[21] which will only be counted if you provide ID to county officials within 10 days, or if you appear before county officials and swear that you cannot get ID without paying a fee and are indigent or that you have a religious objection to being photographed.[22] You can get a non-driver’s ID for free at the Indiana BMV, but you will have to show proof of your citizenship and your address to get ID, which will usually involve bringing a passport or a birth certificate with you.[23]
Additionally, if you are a first-time voter who registered by mail, including through a registration drive, you will have to show proof of your name and address, either when you register or when you vote.[24] This requirement applies to absentee voters as well.[25] You can send a copy of your identification with your registration form, send it to county board of elections before Election Day (including by fax), show it at the polling place, or send it with an absentee ballot.[26] Acceptable proof of address must have your current name and address, and includes: any current and valid photo ID; a current utility bill; a bank statement; a government check; a paycheck; or another government document.[27] While you can vote a provisional ballot if you do not have proof of your address when you go to vote, it will only be counted if you are able to return with proof of address before the polls close.
Absentee Voting
http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/files/abs-1.pdf
To vote absentee, you have to have a “specific, reasonable expectation” that you will be unable to vote in person on Election Day.[28] Your absentee voting application must be received at least 8 days before Election Day.[29] Blank application forms are available on the web site of the Secretary of State at the link above. Your absentee ballot is due before polls close on Election Day.[30] If you are a first-time voter who registered by mail, you will have to submit proof of your address.[31] Neither your application nor your ballot has to be notarized or witnessed.
Early Voting
As a convenience to voters, Indiana has early voting which begins 29 working days before an election and ends at noon on the day before Election Day.[32] At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county. If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent. You should contact your local clerk’s office for locations and hours.
Last Updated in April 2010
[1] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-13-11.
[2] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-33-3.
[3] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-13-1.
[4] FairVote, “Voter Age and Registration,” available at http://www.fairvote.org/youth-preregistration-fact-sheet/.
[5] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-5-2-42.5 (LexisNexis 2010).
[6] Indiana Secretary of State, Election Division, “College Students”, available at http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2626.htm (last visited on April 30, 2010).
[7] Id.
[8] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-5-5-3 (LexisNexis 2010).
[9] Ind. Code Ann. §§ 3-5-5-4, 3-5-5-8.
[10] Ind. Code Ann. §§ 9-13-2-78(3), 9-24-1-1.5 (LexisNexis 2010).
[11] Ind. Code Ann. § 9-24-13-4.
[12] Ind. Code Ann. § 9-17-2-1.
[13] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-33-5(b), (c)(4).
[14] Ind. Code Ann. §§ 3-11-8-20, 3-11-8-27 (LexisNexis 2010).
[15] Indiana Secretary of State, Election Division, “College Students”, available at http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2626.htm.
[16] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11-8-23.5.
[17] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11.7-5-1.5(f) (LexisNexis 2010).
[18] Ind. Code Ann. §§ 3-11-8-25.1, § 3-5-2-40.5. Cf. League of Women Voters of Ind., Inc. v. Rokita, 915 N.E.2d 151 (Ind. Ct. App. 2009) (holding that Indiana’s voter ID law violated the state constitution). The opinion will not affect the state’s voter ID law until the state Supreme Court hears an appeal. Secretary of State of Indiana, “Re: League of Women Voters of Indiana v. Todd Rokita. No. 49A02-0901-CV-40,” available at http://www.in.gov/sos/files/hppscan84.pdf (last visited on April 30, 2010).
[19] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-5-2-40.5 (LexisNexis 2010).
[20] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11-10-1.2.
[21] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11-8-25.1(d)(2).
[22] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11.7-5-2.5.
[23] Indiana Secretary of State, Election Division, “Obtaining a Photo ID”, available at http://www.in.gov/sos/elections/2625.htm (last visited on April 30, 2010).
[24] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-33-4.5 (LexisNexis 2010).
[25] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-33-4.5.
[26] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-33-4.5.
[27] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-33-4.5 (LexisNexis 2010).
[28] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11-10-24.
[29] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11-4-2(g).
[30] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11-10-3.
[31] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-7-33-4.5; § 3-11-4-18.
[32] Ind. Code Ann. § 3-11-10-26.
