(NOBLESVILLE, Ind.) – Five states have postponed their primaries because of the coronavirus pandemic. At least one Indiana congressional candidate says Hoosiers should join them.
Former Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, who’s running in the Republican primary for Fifth District Congresswoman Susan Brooks’ seat, says the May primary should be pushed back to keep voters and pollworkers safe. But Woody Myers, who’s unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor, says the state should instead allow wider use of absentee ballots. Current law lets you vote absentee only under specific circumstances, including senior citizens, the chronically ill, and their caregivers.
State Treasurer Kelly Mitchell, another candidate in the Fifth District, isn’t advocating for or against a delay. She says she trusts Governor Holcomb and Secretary of State Connie Lawson to make the right decision.
Ohio, Kentucky and two other states have postponed their primaries till June, while Georgia moved next week’s presidential primary to coincide with the rest of the state’s primary voting on May 19, But Illinois went ahead with its primary Tuesday. Michigan voted before the virus’s spread began skyrocketing.
Hamilton County Clerk Kathy Williams says she’s encouraging people who are eligible to vote absentee to do it. She says she’d support an executive order to let anyone vote absentee. But she says it’s not practical to conduct the whole election by mail, as some have suggested, because it would be difficult to print enough ballots and envelopes. Those ballots began going out this week.
