700,000 Hoosiers Expected To Vote Absentee

Like many other states, Indiana is expecting a high voter turnout on this election day, and thousands of Hoosiers cast their ballots before the polls opened.Most of Indiana’s four and a half million voters are expected to cast ballots in this election. Jim Gavin with the Secretary of State’s office says a record number of people have cast absentee ballots.“In 2004, which is the best year to compare to, we had about 262,000 people vote by absentee ballot," he says. "We’re going to have about 700,000 in that category this year.”Gavin says the early voters have not made lines shorter at many polling places, and some precincts are reporting waiting times of up to two hours. Indiana had nearly 350 thousand new registrations this year.Gavin also says the state’s voter ID requirement that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court this year has led to some confusion at polling places, but no precincts are reporting Hoosiers being unable to vote.“The Secretary of State has a team of special deputies dispatched around the state to go to each of the polling places and look into these issues and see if there really is anything to them," he says.If an Indiana voter doesn’t have a valid ID with them, they can cast a provisional ballot while they obtain the proper documents.