Indiana may have another election problem on its hands — and once again, it traces back to Secretary of State Diego Morales’ office.
According to information provided to Indy Politics, a serious issue has emerged involving Indiana’s electronic poll books. This is not isolated to a single county or a handful of precincts. The concern appears to be statewide, rooted in the interaction between a new voter registration law, the Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS), and the way the Secretary of State’s office oversees election technology.
In 2024, lawmakers enacted a residency verification requirement for certain new voter registrations. The policy applies to individuals who registered while obtaining a gun permit at a police department, through the Department of Family Services, or during voter registration drives conducted by third parties. The legislative goal was straightforward: ensure that newly registered voters actually reside where they claim.
The implementation is where things appear to have broken down.
Under the new framework, if a voter appears at the polls and their registration still requires residency verification, the electronic poll book is supposed to flag that voter. Poll workers would then take additional steps before allowing a ballot to be cast.
Instead, sources indicate that when the residency verification flag appears, some e-poll book systems can freeze or lock up entirely.
In other words, the compliance mechanism meant to enforce the law may now be threatening the functionality of the voting process itself.
The issue was reportedly identified by Baker Tilly, the outside firm involved in election system support, not internally by the Secretary of State’s office. Insiders say technical personnel have been working on the problem for over a week. Frustration is mounting over what some describe as slow response and limited in-house technical expertise within the office overseeing the system.
Behind the scenes, tensions are high. Angie Nussmeyer, the Democratic co-director of the Indiana Election Division, has reportedly been sounding the alarm and preparing to notify clerks and local election officials statewide. If a reliable fix is not implemented quickly, counties may need contingency plans to conduct an election without fully functioning electronic poll books.
That is not a minor inconvenience.
E-poll books are the operational backbone of modern election administration. They verify voter eligibility, track participation, and prevent duplicate voting. When they fail, lines grow, confidence erodes, and local officials are left improvising under pressure.
This would not be the first election administration stumble under Morales’ tenure.
Earlier this cycle, counties and candidates were forced to deal with confusion surrounding candidate declaration forms and notarization requirements. Filing guidance shifted, paperwork had to be corrected or refiled in some instances, and local officials were left scrambling to interpret instructions that should have been clear from the outset. What should have been a routine administrative process instead became an avoidable disruption.
Now, Indiana election officials may be bracing for something far more consequential: a statewide technology breakdown triggered by a legal and systems mismatch.
Election administration is not a place for trial-and-error governance. If the system freezes on Election Day, voters won’t care whether the breakdown originated in a statute, a vendor contract, or a software integration. They will see one thing — dysfunction.
Indy Politics is submitting an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request to the Secretary of State’s office seeking communications, vendor correspondence, technical reports, and internal discussions related to the residency verification flag and any e-poll book malfunction. Hoosiers deserve to know when this issue was identified, who knew about it, and what steps were taken to fix it.
We will continue monitoring Election Board proceedings and the Secretary of State’s response. For now, clerks are being told to prepare for worst-case scenarios.
