Indiana declines to require proof of citizenship to register to vote
(The Center Square) – An Indiana Senate bill that would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote was changed at the last minute after the Secretary of State’s office said making people prove they are citizens is “unconstitutional,” the bill’s author said.
Sen. Erin Houchin, R-Salem, said her bill had to be completely changed after a conversation with the Indiana Secretary of State’s office.
The office said the proof-of-citizenship provision was “unconstitutional,” said Houchin, and said the other provision in the bill, which would have required risk-limiting audits after every election, wasn’t something Secretary of State Connie Lawson’s office said they were ready to comply with.
The bill, SB 353, which lists Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, as a co-sponsor, would have required people wanting to register to vote in Indiana submit one of the following to prove they are American citizens: a birth certificate, certificate of naturalization, certificate of citizenship, a Report of Birth Abroad of a U.S. Citizen, or an unexpired U.S. passport.
“It’s certainly urgently needed because the Democrats have been on a very aggressive campaign to open up voting to ineligible and illegal voters and have fought every effort not only to verify eligibility but even to verify identity,” Terre Haute-based elections lawyer Jim Bopp said on Friday.
If the bill had passed as written and been enacted, Indiana would have been the first state in the country to require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Read more here.
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