I live in Indiana and was scrolling through the list of bills from the current legislative session1, many of which have been signed into law by Governor Braun. Most are, unfortunately, what one might expect to see from one of the most conservative states in the country. There are many noteworthy bills that reflect the degree of conservatism. For example, House Bill 13482 states:
“Provides that a high school diploma (diploma) or credential issued by a nonaccredited nonpublic school (school) is legally sufficient to demonstrate that the recipient of the diploma or credential has met the requirements to complete high school.” 3
I interpret this as a transparent attempt to endorse diplomas from religious schools. That’s concerning enough, but there are a series of bills that are opaquer in their intent – suppression of the vote of Hoosiers who are unlikely to vote for Republicans.
Voter suppression is the darling child of Republicans
Voter suppression is not a new manifestation of politicians’ darker side. Remember the antebellum poll taxes and literacy tests? What is new is how much success Republicans have achieved. And it is fair to single out Republicans as they are far more likely to suppress voters of their opponents than Democrats4. Let’s be crystal clear about one thing – the reason Republicans aggressively pass legislation to suppress the vote is to disenfranchise those voters who would likely vote for their opponent. That group includes persons of color, the poor, the rural, the young, the elderly and naturalized citizens – legal immigrants who have passed the test for citizenship – a test that 1 in 3 of natural-born citizens can’t pass5. Republicans don’t want a democracy where every eligible voter casts a ballot. If they did, it would mean the end of the Republican party.
The 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder6 gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, removed the federal preclearance requirement for changes in election laws in formerly covered jurisdictions. This resulted in an explosion of legislation to suppress the vote. On the very day of the Shelby decision, Texas announced it would implement its previously blocked strict voter ID law.
In reality, an abundance of research has shown that election fraud is almost nonexistent. But for some, facts just get in the way of reality. Research on voter fraud by impersonation found that substantiated cases were vanishingly small7. Specifically, out of one billion votes, only 31 were found to be due to impersonation. As a means to change the outcome of an election, actions by individual voters would be, well… just a dumb idea.
2025 voter suppression legislation in Indiana
Voter suppression legislation does not overtly state the goals is the suppress votes by the opposition. Instead, the de facto suppression is couched in terms like “Election Integrity,” “election security,” and “Fraud Prevention.” Republicans cling to these terms because they resonate emotionally with their base – facts be damned. Below is a summary of the voter suppression legislation contained in bills introduced in 2025 in Indiana.
Senate Enrolled Act 108
Status: Signed by Governor Braun on 4/16/2025
This act is a prime example of overt voter suppression. It authorizes the use of flawed government databases to flag voters as potential non-citizens. These individuals are then given 30 days to prove their citizenship—or they’re automatically removed from the voter rolls. The law also purges voters who miss two general elections, a tactic historically used to disenfranchise low-income and minority communities who may vote less frequently, but no less legitimately. Adding insult to injury, the bill prohibits student IDs as valid voter ID—blocking many college students from participating in elections where their future is on the line.
House Enrolled Act 16809
Status: Signed by Governor Braun on 5/6/2025
This act bans the use of P.O. boxes or mailboxes as residential addresses—an unnecessary restriction that targets unhoused voters and others with nontraditional housing. It allows absentee ballots to be rejected for trivial technical errors like a missing date or a signature mismatch, effectively throwing out votes for reasons that have nothing to do with fraud. The same bill also expands poll watcher access, inviting the potential for intimidation—especially in precincts with historically marginalized populations.
Senate Enrolled Act 19910
Status: Signed by Governor Braun on 4/1/2025
This act quietly hands expanded surveillance power to political parties. It lets county party chairs place watchers in polling places—even if candidates themselves didn’t request them—enabling parties in power to exert even more presence and pressure at the polls.
These laws don’t come with fanfare or honest public debate. They’re rolled out as administrative updates or security measures, but their purpose is clear: to shrink the electorate, especially those less likely to vote for the dominant party. The result is a voting system that appears intact on the surface but is increasingly tilted in practice—subtly, deliberately, and effectively.
Unfathomable
I just don’t understand how Republicans don’t think voter suppression is anti-American. We are a country of one person, one vote. There is no real fraud, elections have not been “rigged,” they have not been “stolen”. Those are just the demagogic claims intended to solicit support from Republican voters and rationalize the passing of voter suppression legislation. Sadly, it’s been an effective strategy. A 2024 poll revealed that 86% of Republicans are very concerned or concerned about voter fraud – something that has repeatedly been shown to be a non-issue11.
As long as the vast majority of Republican voters believe that voter fraud is a serious issue, there will be no path forward to limit or unwind voter suppression laws. The real challenge is that facts and evidence will be useless in changing their minds, because their beliefs are not based on facts, – they are emotional held beliefs and fear.
It’s a topic for another blog post, but the basis for those beliefs may very well be rooted in neurophysiology and neurobiology. I find the related field of neuropolitics12 to be fascinating and offers the best explanation of why conservatives and liberals view the world fundamentally different. Unfortunately, understanding the basis of those differences does not offer a clear path forward to an agreed-upon view of reality.
I would like to think we can move beyond making emotional decisions on important topics, but human history does nothing to reassure me. In this situation – I think the common expression of “past performance is not a guarantee of future results” likely does not apply.
- https://www.in.gov/gov/newsroom/2025-bill-watch/ ↩︎
- https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/house/1348/details ↩︎
- Not surprisingly, the X profile of the bill’s author is “Pastor and State Representative from Northern Indiana. Follower of Christ. Conservative. Republican.” Clearly the intent it to elevate a diploma from a nonaccredited nonpublic school, as in private religious schools, to that of credentialed public schools. ↩︎
- https://ccis.ucsd.edu/_files/journals/6voter-identification-laws-and-the-suppression.pdf ↩︎
- https://citizensandscholars.org/resource/national-survey-finds-just-1-in-3-americans-would-pass-citizenship-test/ ↩︎
- Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013) ↩︎
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/ ↩︎
- https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/senate/10/details ↩︎
- https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/house/1680/details ↩︎
- https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/senate/199/details ↩︎
- https://www.npr.org/2024/10/03/nx-s1-5130284/election-concerns-voter-fraud-trump-harris-poll ↩︎
- https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=87802 ↩︎
Confronting Mediocrity 