EDITORIAL: How about a substantive debate on election reform?

A House committee last week heard testimony about a bill that includes a provision stating that someone who casts an absentee ballot but dies before Election Day would still have his or her vote count.

We understand such issues may occasionally arise, and that some counties may not be as diligent as others in checking for deaths of absentee voters. But while time is spent tinkering with what is essentially an inconsequential matter, Hoosier lawmakers deliberately ignore a voting system that discourages voter participation and produces one of the worst voter-turnout records in the nation.

We’re not naive. We have no illusions that this legislature would have any interest in reforming a voting system that helped it build mammoth GOP super majorities in both houses.

But that won’t stop us from talking about the multiple flaws in Indiana’s voting system that are contributing to the steady decrease in the numbers of voters who participate in elections here.

If legislators wanted to make an impact on voter participation — and they don’t — then they would be debating proposals such as this:

• Repeal the voter ID law, which Republican Party supporters claim exists to protect against fraud but have never been able to show that any such fraud problems existed. In reality, it is a voter-suppression scheme aimed at decreasing turnouts by 4 to 5 percentage points among the poor and elderly, who tend to vote Democratic.

• Change the 100-year-old voter registration deadline, which requires citizens to register to vote, or change registrations to new addresses, a full month before Election Day. Modern technology allows for a far more lenient registration calendar, up to and including same-day registration and voting.