INDIANA – Today, Secretary of State Holli Sullivan’s top legislative priorities to increase election security and confidence passed the Senate elections committee.
“Every Hoosier deserves to know that their vote was accurately and securely cast,” Secretary Sullivan said. “This bill will ensure every voting machine includes a paper audit trail, allowing voters to independently verify their vote was correctly recorded. This visual evidence gives Hoosiers confidence by seeing paper confirmation of their vote.”
The legislation would provide state-funded Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail machines (VVPATs) for every direct-recording electronic voting machine in the state by 2024.
VVPATs increase voter confidence and improve the state’s ability to conduct post-election audits and recounts.
The bill will also increase security around absentee ballots by requiring Indiana voters to submit their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number when submitting an online request for an absentee ballot.
Indiana offered the option to request an absentee ballot digitally for the first time in 2020.
In the 2020 General Election, Indiana saw an unprecedented number of absentee ballot applications. Nearly 250,000 of those applications were submitted electronically.
Already passed by the House, the bill will also provide cybersecurity protection for the statewide voter registration system and Indiana counties through 2028.
