Longtime Tippecanoe County elections staffer Mike Smith is gearing up for what he describes as an “administrative nightmare” if his fellow Republicans’ redistricting plan is passed out of the Indiana Senate and sent to Gov. Mike Braun’s desk.
In Smith’s 40-plus years running elections in Tippecanoe County, he’s never seen the county split across two congressional districts like it is in Indiana Republicans’ proposed map, which would shake up U.S. House district lines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The Senate is slated to vote on the redistricting bill today, a vote that will serve as the culmination of months of debate here over whether the state should draw a new congressional map that’s more favorable to Republicans — and could potentially wipe out Indiana’s two existing Democratic districts.
Executing those changes would mean a mountain of extra work for county election officials like Smith, who see the time quickly ticking away just weeks before the candidate filing period opens in early January.
Local election officials on both sides of the political aisle are closely — and anxiously — watching what is expected to be a close vote as they prepare for the upcoming 2026 election.
“This is an immense burden,” Smith said. “We’re going to be working around the clock to fix this before Jan. 7. Merry Christmas to me.”
It’s not just about the extra work that awaits his staff. Smith said he’s ultimately worried about “insulating the voters from this storm that’s going on.”
“I want to make sure the voters are not hurt or impacted by this,” Smith said. “The speed with which this is happening is compounding (the problem).”
Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell, who is responsible for making sure nearly a million registered voters in Indianapolis have the opportunity to cast a ballot, is one of the election officials sounding the alarm to lawmakers. She says there’s just not enough time before the election to get everything done.
Sweeney Bell, a Democrat, said she is hoping that “common sense prevails” at the Statehouse and the Senate votes against the House-passed map, which splits Indianapolis into four different congressional districts.
“We know what has to be done, but there is not enough time to do it,” Sweeney Bell said. “I have not talked about the politics of it and I won’t. But it sure doesn’t feel worth it, at least with regard to the administration of elections.”
‘It’s kind of upsetting’
The administrative burden could be higher in areas like Indianapolis, Lafayette, Muncie and Elkhart, where the new districts don’t respect the county lines — or even precinct lines.
The map approved by the Indiana House, for instance, splits Tippecanoe County between the 4th and 5th Congressional Districts, which will result in neighbors potentially having different representation in Congress, Smith said.
The same is true in Elkhart, where voters would be split between the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts.
Smith said election workers will have to go “house by house” in their mapping system to ensure that voters will be assigned the right congressional representative on their ballots, which have to be mailed out to approved absentee voters by mid-March. There’s no system that magically shifts voters across districts, he said. It will have to be done manually.
It’s administratively tricky, but beyond that, Smith said it’s concerning to voters, some of whom have stopped him on the street to complain about the proposal.
“The biggest complaint we’ve received from voters in our community is that we’re splitting communities of interest,” Smith said. “I cannot remember in my 40-year elections lifetime when Tippecanoe County was split. It’s kind of upsetting to folks … of all political stripes.”
$1 million price tag?
Some election administrators are saying the new map will also come with a steep price tag.
Redistricting could conservatively cost Marion County $1 million, Sweeney Bell said, when accounting for overtime staffing costs, election vendor fees, printing and mailing notices to voters, and more.
Typically right before an election that follows a new congressional map, Sweeney Bell said staff members “work 24-hour shifts for weeks.”
“People won’t work for free,” Sweeney Bell said.
Smith, the Tippecanoe County election staffer, hasn’t calculated the cost yet, but he agrees with Sweeney Bell that this will result in some kind of “taxpayer burden.”
Democratic state Sen. JD Ford, D-Indianapolis, proposed an amendment earlier this week that would have reimbursed county election officials for the costs they incurred due to redistricting.
But a majority of the Senate Elections Committee voted it down, with Republican Senate Elections Committee Chairman Mike Gaskill saying that local governments should be able to administer the election using existing resources.
The state Legislative Services Agency doesn’t estimate a fiscal impact at the state or local level, something that Smith says is “patently false.”
Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales, who serves as the state’s chief elections officer and is in support of redistricting, acknowledged in a statement through his press secretary that county election administrators may need technical help if the map passes.
“At this stage in the legislative process, the Secretary of State is not going to second-guess the bill’s author and House of Representative’s assessment that implementation of a Congressional redistricting plan is feasible,” spokeswoman Lindsey Eaton told IndyStar.
‘A lot of work behind the scenes’
Regardless of any potential extra cost, Amy Scrogham, elections director for Allen County in Fort Wayne, says there’s already a lot of work that voters and politicians don’t see when it comes to administering an election. Redistricting so close to an election only complicates that work, she said.
For example there are dozens, if not hundreds, of new ballot “styles” that need to be created, then proofed, she said. Then voters have to be notified of changes. And all of that has to occur long before the first early vote is cast.
“It’s a lot of work behind the scenes to get that properly done,” Scrogham said. “It takes a long time because you want to make sure the ballot goes out properly. Ballots are stressful anyway, but to add this too, so close to the game, it’s quite stressful.”
Sweeney Bell said she’s concerned it could result in disenfranchisement for voters with special circumstances, such as people who move across a congressional line close to Election Day.
“We will endeavor to ensure that every voter who wants to cast a ballot will be able to do, but it’s going to be a hell of a lot harder,” Sweeney Bell said, “and it’s not guaranteed.”
Smith said “we’ll play the hand we’re dealt.”
“Bottom line is, we’ll do right by the voter,” he said. “We’ll do the best we can for them.”
Contact senior government accountability reporter Hayleigh Colombo at hcolombo@indystar.com or follow her on X @hayleighcolombo.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ‘Not enough time’: Election officials prep for redistricting ‘administrative nightmare’
Reporting by Hayleigh Colombo and Kayla Dwyer, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
