EDITORIAL: Indiana legislators' voting plan misses the mark

According to the Associated Press, Democrats argue the changes make voting more difficult and could hurt turnout. State Rep. Milo Smith, R-Columbus, chairman of the House Elections Committee, said it will make everyone look at the candidates for whom they are voting and not simply the party label.

“I just think people need to take the time to learn about who they are voting for before going in rather than just pushing a button for straight party,” said Smith. “I think that makes for a better election process.”

A separate bill would require anyone wanting to cast a mail-in absentee ballot to provide their voter identification number on the application submitted to county election officials. Supporters say it will cut down on voter fraud. But that’s a number few voters know, because we don’t need it to vote.

And it could cost the secretary of state’s office up to $1.3 million to mail information about the voter ID number requirement to all Indiana voters, according to the nonpartisan Indiana Legislative Services Agency. That’s something for a conservative body like the Indiana Legislature to ponder seriously.

Yet another bill would change state law to say a person doesn’t gain residency in a precinct where they are “physically present” for educational purposes. That one seems mostly aimed at college students.

Bill sponsor Sen. Pete Miller, R-Avon, said he didn’t want to change current practice of allowing students to vote either in their hometowns or campus communities and would clarify the bill’s language.

A bit of sanity came thanks to State Rep. Tim Lanane, D-Anderson. He pointed out the state had only a 30 percent voter turnout in last year’s election.

“The last thing we need to do is to enact provisions to make it harder for people to register to vote, harder for them ultimately to vote,” Lanane said. “... That is the last thing we need to do. We ought to be finding ways to encourage people to vote.”

We agree — to a point.

We have long supported common-sense measures, such as Voter ID laws, that secure the integrity of the ballot.

And we have long said that better-educated voters, and we include ourselves in that number, would make for a better election process.

But with turnout at record-low levels, and with study after study proving Hoosiers don’t know their elected officials and don’t know what they do, these measures seem like a straw in a windstorm.

Lawmakers, of course, have no incentive to overhaul the current system — after all, it produced their elections. We don’t hold out hope for that kind of reform.

We continue to hope lawmakers will restore old-fashioned civics to school curriculum. To become competent, involved voters, Hoosiers have to share some basic knowledge about our system.

The key rests with well-educated voters, not with annual tweaks to the minutiae of election law.