Vigo Countians and fellow Hoosiers began casting ballots on Tuesday in the Indiana primary’s early voting season. They voted safely and securely.
Just like they did in 2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, and on and on.
And their safe, secure voting mirrored that of fellow Americans across the nation.
The Indiana Secretary of State’s office conducted a post-2020 election audit of voting in five counties, including Vigo, this year, and completed that review on March 1. The audit examined the races for president, governor, state attorney general, U.S. House of Representatives and county clerk. A statistical analysis of votes cast and the margin of victory determined the number of ballots randomly sampled in the process. The system used was the already-existing Ball State University Voting System Technical Oversight Program. Voting machines and electronic poll books throughout the state are manually inspected through the Ball State system. The program also instructs county election staffers on operations, laws and logistics regarding polling sites.
The point of this year’s audit was to provide strong statistical evidence that an election outcome is correct, according to Allen Carter, director of communications for the Secretary of State’s office.
Its result in those counties – Vigo, Cass, LaPorte, Madison and Marion – was unsurprising.
“In every race examined, the election outcome was confirmed with 100% confidence and high levels of statistical assurance,” Carter told the Tribune-Star’s Howard Greninger.
Indiana Secretary of State Holli Sullivan announced last week that her office will double the number of counties subject to post-election audits after this November’s general election.
Previously, though, Sullivan said Indiana’s election process was secure. “Hoosiers leaving the polls in 2020 were confident, and it has become clear to us that people trust and understand the election process,” she told the Anderson Herald- Bulletin in February. Sullivan is now running for a full term in her office after being appointed last year by Gov. Eric Holcomb to replace former Secretary of State Connie Lawson, who retired just months before her term ended.
Undoubtedly, voting security measures, such as increased post-election audits, will play well to the base of Sullivan’s Republican Party, which prevails in Indiana politics. Secretary of state offices in states across the U.S. have become more high profile in light of former President Donald Trump’s continual false claims that widespread voter fraud occurred in multiple states. Not coincidentally, all of those states Trump targeted for his accusations of fraud are those in which he lost to now-President Joe Biden.
Exhaustive recounts and reviews of voting in those states, by state election officials of both parties, showed no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would have altered the outcome, which concluded with Biden winning by 7 million popular votes and a solid margin in the Electoral College.
Wrongly, the former president’s unprecedented rejection of an orderly transfer of power also resulted in multiple state legislatures controlled by his party enacting unnecessary voting restrictions. Those laws purport to address the nonexistent widespread voter fraud, but actually add barriers to vulnerable groups of voters. A new “election integrity” law in Indiana adds layers to absentee voting.
The processes and staffs of Indiana elections have always required stringent oversight, allowing any problems to be fully addressed. Confidence in that system is a core element of democracy. Existing reviews have shown that Hoosiers can be confident their votes are properly cast and counted, just as they have long been.
THE TRIBUNE-STAR
Terre Haute
