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Attorney General Candidates On AG Curtis Hill's Latest Vote-By-Mail Position

Democratic candidate Jonathan Weinzapfel, left, and Republican Todd Rokita are vying to replace Curtis Hill as Attorney General.
Democratic candidate Jonathan Weinzapfel, left, and Republican Todd Rokita are vying to replace Curtis Hill as Attorney General.

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill would rather a court eliminate the current vote-by-mail option for Hoosiers aged 65 or older than allow every eligible voter to cast a mail-in ballot.

That’s from an ongoing lawsuit aimed at expanding vote-by-mail for the fall election.

The people suing to expand Indiana’s vote-by-mail argue that the 26th Amendment – which sets the voting age at 18 – means the state can’t limit mail-in voting by age. Hill disagrees, but added in a legal brief if a court went along with that notion, he’d rather it invalidated the option for those 65 or older.

Democratic AG candidate Jonathan Weinzapfel calls Hill’s position “short-sighted, purely political and dangerous.”

Republican candidate Todd Rokita said he hasn’t read Hill’s brief. But he doesn’t want to see any changes to Indiana’s election system this close to Election Day.

“We don’t have the infrastructure, we don’t have the facilities, we don’t have the person power to conduct a mail election accurately, without fraud,” Rokita said.

Indiana expanded vote-by-mail to all voters who wanted it for the 2020 primary. Republicans have blocked all efforts to do so for the general election.

Contact reporter Brandon at  bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon J. Smith has previously worked as a reporter and anchor for KBIA Radio in Columbia, MO. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, IL as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.