Chelsea Schneider

Chelsea.Schneider@indystar.com

Local election officials say they’re not experiencing the kind of widespread discrepancies in voter registration records that Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson has alleged as potential voter fraud.

Their assessments came a day after Lawson said her office has found thousands of instances where the birth dates and first names of voters were changed. The election chief said Tuesday she believed this “may be a case of voter fraud” and turned information over to Indiana State Police. The agency has confirmed that an investigation is ongoing.

Local officials in the Indianapolis area told IndyStar that county records are overwhelmingly correct, and they’re not seeing cases in which a voter’s information has been altered without that person’s knowledge. What they are seeing is voters not finding themselves when they check their registration in a separate database kept by the secretary of state at the office's website, indianavoters.com. The clerks suspect those cases stem from voters putting incorrect information into the site, such as a person searching for “Beth” but registered under “Elizabeth.”

Lawson said Wednesday she worries that if voters don’t find themselves in the system, they might skip going to the polls and be “disenfranchised from voting.” Her staff alerted State Police when they discovered “exponentially” more transactions to change birth dates and first names this year as compared with previous election cycles.

“I’m worried that they will check to see they are registered and think for some reason they are not,” Lawson said.

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Weeks ago, some local officials said they reported issues with handwritten registrations that they think are linked to the Indiana Voter Registration Project, a group with Democratic ties under investigation by State Police for potential fraudulent activities. But since then, no new concerns have cropped up.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed the media and voter fraud for what he describes as a "rigged" election process. His running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, also has raised the specter of voter fraud as a concern.

But Indiana county election officials interviewed by IndyStar expressed confidence in the system.

Hendricks County Clerk Debbie Hoskins said her office has not run into cases involving tampering with names or birth dates.

“We have been getting hundreds of calls a day of people wanting to check their registration to make sure it hasn’t been changed, or they went online to check it, and they are saying they’re not found online,” Hoskins said. “But when we look them up in (our) system, they are there and nothing has been changed. So far, we’ve not had anyone call in and say ‘my information has been changed.’”

Hoskins said an important safeguard is in place at polls across Indiana: the requirement that a voter shows a government-issued ID before a ballot can be cast.

In Hancock County, election officials have processed 1,300 voter registrations in recent weeks, with a fraction of those — fewer than 25 — requiring further review, said county Clerk Marcia Moore, a Republican. In those cases, officials call the voter to double-check the information. Records were flagged for further review if the birth date didn’t match records or was missing, she said.

“My staff has not told me anybody called us back and said, ‘No, that wasn’t us,’” Moore said. “So I don’t have an experience with somebody saying, ‘that affected me.’”

Johnson County Clerk Sue Anne Misiniec said she also has not received any inquiries or complaints. About two or three voters have reported their birth dates were incorrect, the GOP official said, but that could stem from a data-entry error. Clerks in Morgan and Boone counties didn’t report any issues, either.

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But in Marion County, Cindy Mowery, the Republican director of the county’s voter registration board, said she had a man claim Wednesday he didn’t complete the registration the county had on file. But the issue isn’t “large right now,” she said.

“We’re not going to know for sure until Election Day,” Mowery said. “Hopefully as people try to find their registration, they come in and find us, and we can clear up any problem before Election Day.”

In an interview with IndyStar, Lawson said “numerous” people told her office they couldn’t find their registration online or they received a notification generated by the system when a voter’s record is changed.

They told staff: “I got this notification my name was changed, and I didn’t ask for my name to be changed in the system, and my name shouldn’t be changed,” Lawson said.

Lawson, a Republican who has served as secretary of state since 2012, said she didn’t rush to a conclusion.

“I said it ‘could be.’ We did not say that it was (voter fraud),” Lawson said. “One of our main concerns was that voters would think that the (system) had been hacked. We wanted to make it very clear the statewide voter registration system has not been hacked."

But Michelle Fajman, the Lake County elections director, sees it differently.

“(Lawson) is jumping to a large conclusion there,” said Fajman, a Democrat. “I don’t think there is voter fraud going on in that aspect of it. … In my opinion, she’s jumped the gun a little bit on that. You are causing more confusion than you are actually helping in some cases.”

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said leaders from all parties need to “build confidence in our system.”

“There is a heightened sense of uneasiness this fall, unfortunately stoked by partisan motivations from those who want to erode the public’s confidence in our elections system,” Zody said in a statement.

Pence, ISP: Voter suppression allegations 'completely false'

State Police said the new information from Lawson “may serve as evidence of forgery” by the Indiana Voter Registration Project. Police are investigating alleged fraud connected to the voter registration efforts of the group linked to Patriot Majority USA. State Police officers raided the group's offices Oct. 4 and days later alleged fraud in 56 counties.

“Because of these new revelations, the magnitude of the possible fraud involved and with the election less than three weeks away, I have directed all available resources within the Indiana State Police to assist with this investigation,” State Police Superintendent Doug Carter said in a statement.

But Craig Varoga, president of Patriot Majority USA, said “everybody here needs to take a deep breath and count to 10” in response to State Police actions.

“We believe, based on what Connie Lawson said two years ago, that one-in-eight files on the statewide voter file in Indiana may have inaccuracies, and that the statewide voter file, as it exists today, is a flawed piece of information on which to make unsubstantiated assertions,” Varoga said in a statement.

Varoga accused Pence last week of using the State Police to suppress Indiana voters and violate their constitutional rights. And the group recently launched radio ads on black-oriented stations and placed ads in black newspapers across the state Saturday, accusing the governor and Republican vice presidential nominee of voter suppression.

Pence and State Police have strongly denied the accusations.

IndyStar reporter John Tuohy contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter:@indystarchelsea.

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