Nonpartisan Voting Rights Organizations Send Second Notice of Violation of the National Voter Registration Act to Indiana State Election Officials
On July, 1, 2025, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and William R. Groth and Daniel Bowman of Bowman & Vlink, LLC, sent a second notice of violation of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) on behalf of Indiana nonpartisan civic organizations, including Common Cause Indiana, League of Women Voters of Indiana, Hoosier Asian American Power, and NAACP Indiana State Conference, to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office and the Indiana Election Division co-directors about HEA 1680’s New-Registrant Citizenship Crosscheck Requirement and SEA 10’s 48-Hour Requirement.
This second notice letter was also sent on behalf of Rev. Dr. Jonathan H. Reinink, a naturalized U.S. citizen registered to vote in Indiana, regarding voting rights violations.
An explanation of the laws in violation of the NVRA is below:
HEA 1680’s New-Registrant Citizenship Crosscheck Requirement requires someone to provide proof of citizenship if they are using a temporary ID or temporary driver’s license to register to vote. If an individual does not provide proof of citizenship within 30 days of being asked, their voter registration will be rejected.
SEA 10’s 48-Hour Requirement requires a voter’s registration to be canceled within 48 hours of Indiana’s county voter registration offices receiving information that a registered voter has not provided proof of citizenship after being asked to do so under HEA 1264’s Current Voter Citizenship Crosscheck Requirement.
HEA 1264’s Current-Voter Citizenship Crosscheck Requirement requires that voting officials compare the statewide voter registration file of current voters with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ (BMV) list of temporary credentials, in a flawed attempt to verify voter citizenship. Individuals identified through this comparison will be required to provide proof of citizenship within 30 days of being asked, or their voter registration will be canceled.
HEA 1680’s New-Registrant Citizenship Crosscheck Requirement and SEA 10’s 48-Hour Requirement passed in 2025, and HEA 1264’s Current-Voter Citizenship Requirement passed in 2024. All three requirements went into effect on July 1, 2025.
The NVRA was enacted to protect U.S. citizens from discriminatory and unfair voter registration laws, particularly those that negatively impact eligible voters from historically marginalized communities. The three new Indiana voting laws violate the NVRA by unnecessarily burdening naturalized citizens, requiring additional documentation from them that isn’t asked of U.S.-born citizens.
These laws also have the potential to disenfranchise voters because of their flawed attempt at cross-checking citizenship status with BMV records that do not accurately represent whether someone is currently a noncitizen. An individual can receive a temporary credential as a noncitizen, become a U.S. citizen, and keep their temporary credential until it expires, and nothing requires the individual to update their citizenship status with the BMV.
Across the country, we’re seeing unsubstantiated narratives of non-citizen voting, but there is overwhelming evidence that non-citizens neither vote nor attempt to vote. The three new Indiana voting laws do nothing to protect the integrity of Indiana’s elections and seek a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.
The Indiana nonpartisan civic organizations hope to hear from the Indiana Secretary of State’s office and the Indiana Election Division about their plans to correct their violations of the NVRA.
This letter is a follow up to a previous notice letter the Indiana nonpartisan civic organizations sent on April 2, 2025. Read the first letter here.
Read more about this in The Indiana Citizen article here.