(INDIANAPOLIS) — Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett says he’d like to see expanded mail-in voting continue for the fall election, but with some changes.
Hogsett says he’s already started talking with Marion County Clerk Myla Eldridge and the rest of the
county election board about ways to make the November election run more smoothly. He says the
pandemic remains a powerful reason to allow anyone to vote by mail.
Governor Holcomb and Secretary of State Connie Lawson have brushed aside questions about continuing mail-in voting in November, saying they wanted to get through last week’s primary first.
Lawson and Eldridge sparred publicly in the final days before the primary, with Eldridge criticizing the deadline of noon on primary day to return ballots, and Lawson slamming Eldridge for taking up to two weeks to process requests for absentee ballots.
Marion County has taken six days to count more than 90,000 mail-in ballots. And some in-person
voters were still waiting in line three hours after the polls were supposed to close.
Hogsett says the county may need to look at increased staffing for the fall election. Lawson credited Hogsett with rushing extra workers to the clerk’s office to deal with the backlog of unanswered ballot requests. And Hogsett says if the state does expand mail-in voting again, he wants to work with Lawson on a potential looser deadline.
