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House restores 2024 deadline for counties to install paper backups on voting machines

Brandon Smith
/
IPB News
The Indiana House restored a July 2024 deadline for counties to install paper backups on their electronic voting machines.

The Indiana House has reversed course, restoring language in a bill that will move up the deadline for counties to install a vital election security measure

Current law requires counties to have paper backup systems for their electronic voting machines by 2030. A bill this session, HB 1116, would move that date up to July 2024.

But the House Ways and Means committee eliminated that change because it costs money – about $12 million.

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Then, on the House floor Thursday, Ways and Means Chair Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) put the July 2024 deadline back into the bill.

“We heard complaints about this bill as we’re going through the process," Brown said. "And we listened.”

But the bill doesn’t include any money to help counties with the cost of adding the paper backups. And House Republicans rejected an attempt by Democrats to supply that funding.

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

Copyright 2022 IPB News. To see more, visit .

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, 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.