Voter Registration

The Office of the Secretary of State and Indiana Election Division have developed an Online Voter Registration Solution (OVRS) which will allow Indiana residents to submit a voter registration application electronically to the appropriate county voter registration office. Hoosiers will be able to use this new tool to submit a new voter registration application or an application to update an existing voter registration record. Historically, voter registration applicants have most commonly had to register to vote using a paper-based voter registration application form (VRG-7) or register in person at a county voter registration office, Indiana Election Division, or a branch office of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

The General Assembly of the State of Indiana passed Indiana Code 3-7-26.7 requiring the Office of the Secretary of State and Indiana Election Division to develop an Online Voter Registration Solution (OVRS). This legislation passed with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. The overall goal of the legislation was to offer more and easier ways for Hoosiers to register to vote. Additionally, this legislation was passed as part of the State's ongoing efforts to improve the accuracy of the State of Indiana's voter registration list and reduce errors associated with data entry processing of paper-based voter registration applications.

The Indiana Online Voter Registration Solution can be accessed online at www.indianavoters.com. In addition to registering to vote online, www.indianavoters.com provides Hoosiers with the ability to validate their voter registration status, find their polling place location, look into their provisional ballot status information, find county contact information, and determine "who is on My Ballot?" for an upcoming election.

Indiana Code 3-7-26.7 requires the Office of the Secretary of State and Indiana Election Division to implement the online voter registration solution on July 1st, 2010.

To use the new Online Voter Registration Solution, an applicant must (1) possess a valid and current Indiana Driver's License or Indiana State ID that is issued by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and (2) the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles must have a signature on file for the applicant. State law (IC 3-7-32-2) does not require an additional signature by the voter as part of the online registration process. Instead, the applicant's BMV signature is attached by the Online Voter Registration Solution to the applicant's online registration application submission and used for voter registration purposes.

If an individual does not possess a valid and current Indiana Driver's License ID or Indiana State ID, he/she can still register to vote via several other common means including: completing a VRG-7 and mailing it to the appropriate county voter registration office, completing a VRG-7 and mailing it to the Indiana Election Division, registering to vote at one of the state's National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) local agencies such as a Bureau of Motor Vehicles' branch office, registering to vote at the appropriate county voter registration office, and registering to vote at the Indiana Election Division.

The Indiana online voter registration law did not repeal the existing federal and state laws that require voter registration applications to be available to submit via U.S. mail. The existing application form will remain on the Indiana Election Division website and www.indianavoters.com for applicants to print out, complete, and sign, then return the paper form by mail.

Applicants go through the simple, 5-step online voter registration application process outlined below.

Step 1: An applicant must agree to the Terms of Use to submit a voter registration application using the Online Voter Registration Solution. An applicant can review the Terms of Use.

Step 2: In this step, an applicant must indicate he/she meets the requirements to register to vote in Indiana, including: confirming he/she is a US citizen and will be at least 18 years of age on or before the next general, municipal, or special election, has lived in his/her precinct for at least 30 days before the next general, municipal, or special election, and he/she is not currently in prison after being convicted of a crime. Additionally, the applicant must also provide a valid and current Indiana driver's license number or Indiana State ID card number to be eligible to use the Online Voter Registration Solution. During this step, the Online Voter Registration Solution also presents the applicant with an image containing an alphanumeric code (or sound clip) that must be typed into a field. This security feature prevents malicious computer programs from spamming the website.

Step 3: In this step, an applicant must provide his/her personal information (e.g. name, date of birth, residence address, mailing address, etc.) required to submit a voter registration application. The information required in this step aligns with the information currently required on the VRG-7 (or Indiana Voter Registration Application Form).

Step 4: An applicant in this step is required to review and confirm the accuracy of the information provided in Step 3. If necessary, the applicant can edit or correct any of the information entered in Step 3. Additionally, the Online Voter Registration Solution requires the applicant to agree to a series of voter declarations in this step. These voter applicant declarations are currently contained on the VRG-7 (or Indiana Voter Registration Application Form). However, the Online Voter Registration Solution requires an applicant to agree to one additional voter declaration that is not contained on VRG-7. This declaration requires the applicant to authorize the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to release and provide the County Voter Registration Office with both the applicant's signature and information on his/her Indiana Driver's License or Indiana State ID card. The applicant also acknowledges that he/she understands the County Voter Registration Office will use the signature and information on his/her Indiana Driver's License or ID for voter registration purposes. Finally, this step requires the voter registration applicant to formally submit his/her application for further county voter registration office review and processing.

Step 5: After completing Step 4, the Online Voter Registration Solution provides the applicant with the ability to print a copy of their voter registration application as well as a voter registration application confirmation code. The Online Voter Registration Solution also provides the applicant with the contact information of the county voter registration office should he/she have any questions or issues.

Upon completing the online voter registration application process, an applicant will be provided with a confirmation code indicating that his/her online voter registration application was successfully submitted to the appropriate county voter registration office. Additionally, the applicant will be provided with the contact information of his/her county voter registration office should he/she has any further questions or issues. The Online Voter Registration Solution provides applicants with a feature to print an online voter registration application confirmation notice that contains the voter registration application information, the confirmation code, as well as the county voter registration contact office information.

Similar to current voter registration application process, the county voter registration office will follow up with the voter applicant at a later date to indicate that (1) the individual's voter registration application has been accepted, (2) the individual's voter registration application has been rejected, or (3) the voter registration office requires clarification on the information provided by the applicant.

The Indiana Online Voter Registration Solution is integrated with Indiana's Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS). The Indiana Statewide Voter Registration System is a single, uniform electronic database containing the voter registration records for the entire State and used by the election administration officials across all of Indiana's 92 counties. SVRS is the official voter registration list of the state's voters. The Online Voter Registration Solution transmits all online voter registration applications to SVRS via a nightly system batch process. SVRS then takes the online voter registration applications and places them into a work task manager for the appropriate county voter registration office to review and process. County election officials will then process these online voter registration applications by reviewing the information contained within the application, as well as various system flags and alerts identifying potential duplicate voter registration record matches, potential Department of Health death record matches, potential Department of Correction incarceration matches, etc. County voter registration officials also can transfer an online voter registration application to another county voter registration office, when necessary.

Regardless of whether a voter registration application is submitted via paper or electronically, county voter registration officials carefully review each voter registration application using Indiana's Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS). The Indiana Statewide Voter Registration System is a single, uniform electronic database containing the voter registration records for the entire State and used by election officials across all of Indiana's 92 counties. The SVRS has several features and flags that assist county voter registration officials with identifying a potential duplicate match of a registration application to existing voter registration records residing within their county or another county within the State. Additionally, the SVRS provides county voter registration officials with the ability to confirm the accuracy of information provided on the application (e.g. valid Indiana residence address), research whether or not the applicant is documented as deceased with the Indiana Department of Health, research whether or not the applicant is identified as being incarcerated with the Indiana Department of Correction, and several other features.

In addition to sending county voter registration officials a copy of the applicant's signature on file with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Online Voter Registration Solution will also attach to the online voter registration application Indiana Driver's License or Indiana State ID card account holder information. The county voter registration officials will use this additional information to verify the Indiana Driver's License ID or Indiana State ID account holder is the same as the individual applying to become a registered voter. It is important to note that county voter registration officials have similar tools within the Statewide Voter Registration System today that allow them to validate DLN and SSN information that is provided on a paper-based voter registration application.

The Indiana Online Voter Registration Solution has been designed to accommodate up to 2,500 online voter registration applications per hour. Additionally, the solution adheres to a multitude of industry best standards to ensure an appropriate level of system availability, backup, security, and redundancy.

While designing Indiana's Online Voter Registration Solution, the State of Indiana worked with the State of Washington and the State of Arizona to understand best practices and potential implementation risks with implementing an Online Voter Registration Solution. Both of these states provided tremendously valuable information as the State of Indiana considered a multitude of important issues around the OVRS, including:

• Graphical User Interface Design and Workflow
• Security
• Performances and Capacity Planning
• Terms of Use
• Language Accessibility and 503 Compliance
• Confirmation of Voter Registration Application Submission
• Ease of Website Configuration
• Online Voter Registration Eligibility
• Data Integration and System Interfaces
• Mobile Device Accessibility
• Ongoing Collection of User Feedback
• Training and Implementation Planning

In addition to extensive research of other State online voter registration solutions, the Office of the Secretary of State and Indiana Election Division has been extensively testing the new system since December 2009. Additionally, the Office of the Secretary of State and Indiana Election Division coordinated a large county testing effort between March and June 2010 to obtain feedback on the solution from county voter registration officials.