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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowOne of Indiana’s most prominent corporations is criticizing an Indiana proposal that opponents maintain will make mail-in voting more difficult by requiring voters to submit identification numbers with their ballot applications.
The bill’s Republican sponsors say Senate Bill 353 is aimed at preventing voter fraud by having similar voter ID requirements for mail voting as the state requires of people casting ballots in-person at polling sites.
Eli Lilly and Co. senior vice president Stephen Fry told a legislative committee Tuesday that the company believed state officials acted correctly to allow no-excuse mail-in voting for the spring 2020 primary because of COVID-19 concerns. Fry said Lilly believed the bill isn’t needed and will “perpetuate the narrative that the 2020 election outcome was flawed or compromised.”
The proposal would require a voter to submit their 10-digit Indiana driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on their mail-in ballot application to confirm their identity. Bill opponents counter that will lead to many applications being rejected because of voters not knowing which number is on file with their county election office and that some older voter registration records include no such numbers.
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