MARY BETH SCHNEIDER, INDIANAPOLIS STAR
When low-income Hoosiers turn to state social-services offices for help, they’re supposed to get something more than financial assistance. They’re also supposed to be able to register to vote.
But two national voting-rights groups say Indiana is failing that federally required responsibility, and, as they have done elsewhere, are threatening to sue the state.
Project Vote and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, say their November survey of nine Indiana Family and Social Services Administration offices in Lake and Marion counties found that none were providing voter registration forms to clients. Eight didn’t even have the forms available, the groups said.
Nicole Kovite, a Project Vote official, said workers at the FSSA offices were unaware of the federal law that makes social-services offices — along with Bureau of Motor Vehicle branches and some other public offices — responsible for helping people register to vote.
“We don’t do voter registration here. You’ll have to go somewhere else,” one FSSA staffer reportedly told a member of the voting group.
A check by an Indianapolis Star reporter at one Marion County FSSA office did produce a voter registration form, but obtaining it wasn’t easy.
The receptionist at the front desk was skeptical when asked for the form and suggested the reporter wait in line with welfare clients to speak to another staff member.
A bin on the wall of the office was marked “Voter Registration Forms” but was empty.
After a 20-minute wait in line, the reporter obtained the form after another employee, who was also skeptical at first, rifled through several file folders to find it.
Kovite said such responses may be the reason why, according to census data, Indiana is among the worst states in the nation at registering low-income people to vote.
Lauren Auld, spokeswoman for FSSA, said a new public assistance application includes a section asking people whether they want to register to vote. The new form was developed as part of FSSA’s eligibility modernization push and is available in the 59 counties — though not Marion County — that are part of the initial phase-in.
Auld said the claims by Project Vote and ACORN of people being sent elsewhere were “unfortunate, and we will obviously take action to remind our employees that this is a service that we offer.”
“We are definitely a location where you can register to vote,” she said.
Registrations have fallen
Kovite cited federal census data that shows about 49 percent of low-income Hoosiers were not registered to vote in 2006. And, she said, the number of people who registered to vote at social-services offices in Indiana has plummeted.
In 1995 and 1996 — the first election cycle after the 1993 federal law, better known as the Motor Voter Act, was passed — Indiana registered 83,853 people at state social-services offices, according to the Federal Election Commission and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
In 2001 and 2002, that figure dropped to 13,281. And by 2005 and 2006, the numbers of voters registered at the social-services offices had sunk to 6,023, the federal data show.
More recent data, compiled through Indiana’s Statewide Voter Registration System, shows that the numbers have slumped even lower in the past two years.
In 2007, only 638 people registered to vote at social-services offices, and in 2008 — despite the intense interest in the presidential race here — only 227 applications to vote came from social-services offices.
In contrast, voter registration at BMV branches remains strong, with 312,963 people registering to vote at license branches in 2007 and 349,108 doing so in 2008.
Graig Lubsen, a spokesman for the BMV, said those numbers only include those people who actually completed their registration at a license branch and not the many more who simply picked up an application there.
Compliance ‘hit or miss’
Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause/Indiana, said she isn’t surprised that Project Vote found problems at social-services offices. She became concerned that the state was failing to live up to the federal law back in 2002, when she was serving on the governor’s Planning Council for People with Disabilities.
One of the issues the council looked into that year, she said, was whether state public assistance offices were complying with the federal law.
“It was very hit or miss. Some of them were registering, others were not,” she said. “A whole lot of people (who worked in those offices) had no clue they were supposed to be doing this. We had one service provider I remember up in Delaware County say, ‘Oh, no. That would be illegal.’ “
Vaughn said the council pushed the bipartisan Indiana Election Division, which is responsible under state law for implementing the federal voting law, to hold training sessions for state employees. Those, apparently, were never held.
Brad King, the Republican co-director of the election division, said it’s the responsibility of FSSA to make sure its workers comply with the law. The election division does not monitor whether the offices follow the law, he said, and only gets involved if someone makes a complaint. No one has, he said.
Pam Potesta, the Democratic co-director of the division, did not return several calls seeking comment.
Auld, the FSSA spokeswoman, said her agency has no formal training program on voter registration but that all of its offices are supposed to have a voter registration coordinator to make sure the forms are available and turned in to the county elections or clerks’ offices weekly.
Notice of ‘intent to sue’
As they’re required to by law, Project Vote and ACORN sent their initial letter, warning of possible legal action, to Secretary of State Todd Rokita.
Rokita — who during the 2008 election accused ACORN of voter fraud for submitting fraudulent voter registration forms in Lake County — declined to be interviewed.
In a letter, Jerold A. Bonnet, the counsel in the secretary of state’s office, told the groups they should contact the Indiana Election Division, and touted the office’s voter registration efforts, saying Indiana has had record increases.
Kovite said the organizations will send an “intent to sue” notice to the election division, triggering a 90-day window for the state to take action or face a lawsuit.
The voting-rights groups have taken such legal action before, including in Ohio and Missouri, where cases are pending in court.
In Missouri, Kovite said, a federal judge last July granted the groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction compelling the state to comply with the law. Since then, she said, more than 57,000 voter registration applications have been collected in that state’s social-services offices.
In addition to cases brought by ACORN and Project Vote, the U.S. Justice Department also has taken action against states that fail to comply with the Motor Voter law, reaching consent agreements with Arizona, Tennessee and, in the past few weeks, Illinois.
Kovite said the groups’ goal is not to go to court, but to see the federal law followed.
“At this point, Indiana has shown no effort to comply with the law,” she said.
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