At the top of the Indiana Senate Elections Committee agenda is a measure that would allow the votes of certain dead people to count.
Under Sen. Greg Walker's proposal, if someone casts an absentee ballot in Indiana but then dies before election day, the dead voter's ballot would be counted.
The goal of the bill is not to allow dead people to vote, Walker said.
Instead, the measure is intended to save election workers' time because they will no longer have to check absentee ballots against information about recent deaths, he said.
"It's just a way to streamline the process," he said. "Crosscheck work with Social Security and other sources is very consuming. ... They've really got, in my view, other things more critical to do than checking the death logs."
Walker, R-Columbus, chairman of the Senate Elections Committee, is set to give a hearing on the bill this morning.
He said that county election officials have told him that instances in which a person casts an absentee ballot but dies before Election Day are rare.
"I've had some comments from county officials that say it's a handful," he said.
Rep. Richard Hamm, R-Richmond, filed a corresponding bill in the House of Representatives.
Several other bills involving voting rights were introduced this session. Two regarding absentee voting will also be heard in the elections committee, this morning.
Republican John Ford and Democrat Frank Mrvan filed bills that would allow no-fault absentee voting in the state, meaning that there is no excuse needed in order to be granted an absentee ballot.
A majority of states across the nation have no-fault absentee voting. Opponents argue the practice allows for easy voter fraud, as it makes it much easier to obtain an absentee ballot.
Sen. Greg Taylor, D- Indianapolis, has also filed two bills for the 2018 legislative session that address early voting in Marion County.
An IndyStar analysis conducted last year found that GOP officials expanded early voting stations in Republican dominated Hamilton County and decreased them in the state's biggest Democratic hotbed, Marion County.
Taylor's bills, which would be effective July 2018 if passed into law, would repeal and replace rules governing the Marion County Election Board and make it easier to establish new early-voting sites.
