Bills cutting short the early voting period and submitting the oaths of ballot counters to the election division passed out of the Indiana Senate Elections Committee Monday. The committee also heard a bill about school board elections,

Indiana lawmakers consider a bill to halve the early voting period, raising concerns about its impact on voter turnout and access.

Hoosier voters have dismal turnout. Would shortening the voting period help or hurt efforts to get people to the polls?

The Indiana Senate Elections Committee voted to pass legislation that would close primary elections in the state.

The bill would automatically assign party registration to everyone who’s voted in a partisan primary election before. Voter registration forms would now have a party affiliation section.

Republicans like State Senator Gary Byrne, the author of the bill, believe this is the right thing to do. Critics of it say it just makes it unnecessarily harder to vote.

“We don’t need less early voting in Indiana, we need more of it, and this bill significantly reduces the option,” added Julia Vaughn with Common Cause Indiana. “It will be particularly harmful to elderly and disabled voters who already struggle to stand in line.”

Proposals advancing at the Indiana Senate would cut the state's early voting period to 14 days and limit voter participation in primary elections.

The number of days of early, in-person voting in Indiana would be cut in half under legislation approved by a Senate committee Monday.

Indiana mayors, city and town clerks and councilors would be elected in presidential election years under a bill, approved by a Senate committee Monday.

Hoosier voters could see early in-person voting slashed from a month to two weeks under legislation moving to the Indiana Senate’s floor.

Legislation authored by state Sen. Mike Gaskill proposes moving future municipal elections to even-numbered years.