× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly half a million individuals have been deleted from Indiana's list of registered voters since the Nov. 8, 2016, general election.

Republican Secretary of State Connie Lawson said Tuesday that the removals are part of an ongoing effort to clean up the state's voter records after she determined her predecessors largely ignored the time-consuming task.

"I discovered voter list maintenance was not being done statewide and many outdated voter registrations were still on the rolls," Lawson said. "I made it a priority to ensure our state's list was accurate and that we followed the federal law."

Across Indiana, 481,235 registered voters were purged, or about 10 percent of the state's total.

That includes 28,887 in Lake County, 10,240 in Porter County, 9,425 in LaPorte County, 1,542 in Jasper County and 1,431 in Newton County, according to the secretary of state's office.

The process began in 2014 when Lawson mailed a postcard to every registered voter in the state.

Those returned as undeliverable were sent a second, forwardable postcard in an effort to verify the voter still lived at the address in his or her registration record.