INDIANAPOLIS - The
Indiana General Assembly
has passed its first bill of
the 2011 legislative session:
a proposal to allow any
Indiana county to use centralized
vote centers
instead of neighborhood
polling precincts.
Lawmakers put the bill
on the fast track so that
counties that want to can
establish vote centers for
the May municipal primary
elections. The Senate
unanimously approved
the proposal, and the
House on Monday voted 68-
28 to send the bill to
Republican Gov. Mitch
Daniels.
While some House
Democrats joined Republicans
in supporting the bill,
Democratic Minority
Leader Patrick Bauer said
the lawmakers' first bill of
the session should have
dealt with more important
issues like creating jobs or
protecting education funding.
"It's a terrible precedent
to establish," said Bauer,
D-South Bend. "It says to
the people you care more
about your re-election than
the people suffering in this
state."
Bill supporters said just
because the bill happened
to be passed first doesn't
grant it any significance.
Rep. Kathy Richardson, RNoblesville,
said lawmakers
have plenty of other
bills dealing with jobs and
other important topics.
"We have a lot of good
things we're working on,"
she said.
Under vote center systems,
counties replace
neighborhood precincts
with more centralized centers
at places like fire
departments, senior centers,
grocery stores or
shopping malls. Some caution
that voters without
transportation might have
problems reaching a voting
site if they are spread
too far apart, but supporters
say voters like the convenience
of being able to
cast a ballot away from
their neighborhood sites.
Tippecanoe, Cass and
Wayne counties already
use vote centers through a
pilot project, and have
reported savings because
they don't have to staff as
many polling sites.
