INDIANAPOLIS – Two of Indiana’s top elected leaders on Thursday announced they’ve requested federal aid in scrutinizing the citizenship status of more than 585,000 registered Hoosier voters — more than one in 10 residents on the voter rolls.
The effort echoes similar attempts in other states to purge voter rolls — several of which have run afoul of a federal deadline intended to protect eligible voters.
The Oct. 11 letter was sent after Indiana’s Oct. 7 voter registration deadline, and when Election Day was about three weeks away. Accordingly, the letter noted, “We are thus at a critical juncture in this election cycle when verifying the integrity of Indiana’s voter rolls is of acute importance.”
The letter, addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, asks the agency to use its “Person Centric Query Service” to verify a list of names and dates of birth.
The list of 585,774 includes those who registered without an Indiana driver’s license number or a social security number — or who live overseas.
Indiana has 4,836,973 residents registered to vote, so the letter invites scrutiny of about 12% of them.
“A fair and secure election process begins with accurate voter information,” Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales said. “As Indiana’s Chief Election Officer, I am committed to ensuring that every registered voter in Indiana has met the legal requirements, including being a U.S. citizen.”
Morales, a Republican, dubbed the letter “proactive steps to gather missing information for those who completed their registration without a state-issued ID.”
Read more of the Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Whitney Downard story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
