Changes to note before you head out to vote

INDIANAPOLIS — Early voting is now underway around the state, ahead of the May primary election.

In Marion County, you can vote at the City-County Building, from 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday thru Friday.

It's the only voting center open right now in the county.

Starting April 23, all other voting centers will open, even on Saturdays. There will be one in each township.

However, if you voted by mail in 2020 due to the pandemic, you won’t be able to this time around unless you specifically qualify.

"In May of 2020 anybody could vote by mail,” said Brienne Delaney the Director of Elections, Marion County. “We are back to our standard absentee ballot applications, so voting through the mail, you do have to check one of the excuse boxes. There are at least 10 reasons why you can vote by mail but you have to have a reason to vote by mail."

There was a new state law that passed that will change how you request a mail-in ballot if you are requesting one online. You will either have to provide your driver’s license number or your social security number.

The Indiana Secretary of State Holli Sullivan says 2020 is the first year they allowed people to request one online.

Hoosiers appreciated the convenience of this process, so the state wanted to continue to provide it. However, they wanted to make sure Hoosier still had confidence in the security of elections.

"It was new in 2020 it was the first time Hoosiers were able to use the online application process to vote from home and we wanted to put some safeguards around it as we continue to use it in the future," Sullivan said.

Another election-related law the Indiana General Assembly passed has to do with paper ballot backups. A paper ballot backup is a physical print of the people the voters cast their ballots for.

The paper ballot is for voters to be able to verify their votes after they have cast them electronically.

Originally, counties had a deadline of 2029 to provide voters with a paper ballot backup. However, now that deadline has been moved to 2024 ahead of the next presidential election.

“The state legislator did fund that with state tax dollars,” Secretary of State Sullivan said. “So those local clerks and communities will not have to use local finances to do the implementation in a quicker method. We will have that purchased and given to those counties so they can administer them before the 2024 election. Many are probably seeing the voter-verified paper trail for the first time in this election. Other counties will implement them in 2023, and then everyone across the state will have them in place by 2024.”

When you head to the polls be sure to bring your state-issued ID or a passport.

If you haven’t registered to vote yet you won’t be able to vote in the primary. However, once the primary elections is over, you are able to register to vote in the general election. The primary election day is May 3. To find a vote center near you visit vote.indy.gov.