After photo ID, Indiana spent $12.2 million on voter outreach, free ID cards
In addition to Georgia, Indiana is the state brought up frequently in discussions about Texas’ impending voter photo ID law. While Georgia’s Secretary of State
Jul 31, 20205.9K Shares536.5K Views
In addition to Georgia, Indiana is the state brought up frequently in discussions about Texas’ impending voter photo ID law. While Georgia’s Secretary of State calculates the cost of implementing photo ID at about $1.6 million, as the Texas Independentpreviously reported, Indiana has not broken out financial statistics specifically for the photo ID requirement, which passed in 2005.
However, according to information provided by Indiana’s SOS, the total tab for voter education efforts and free voter IDs has run in the neighborhood of $12.2 million since 2006.
According to an email from Indiana SOS staffers:
“„“Most of the costs associated with the implementation of Indiana’s Photo ID Law are too intangible to quantify (i.e. local training). Since 2006, we have spent roughly 2.2 million dollars on voter education efforts statewide. Although the message about Indiana’s Photo ID Law was prominent in many of those voter education campaigns, those campaigns also focused on many other key messages (i.e. dates, deadlines, etc).”
Additionally, Indiana has calculated $10 million in lost state revenue from 2007-2010, specifically for the issuance of free voter ID cards from the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles
According to Indiana SOS staffers:
“„“Although Indiana’s Photo ID Law passed in 2005, we only have data from our BMV going back to 2007. […] The loss of revenue figures were calculated by the BMV and were based on materials, printing, man power, etc.”
While Georgia issued only about 25,000 free ID cards from 2005-2010, with 51 percent of those during the 2008 presidential year, Indiana issued more than 770,000 from 2007-2010, with about 28 percent of those during 2008.
According to 2010 U.S. Census data, Indiana’s population is about 6.5 million people. That’s about 26 percent of the population of Texas, which is 25.1 million.
Texas’ Legislative Budget Board estimates a cost of $2 million on outreach and training of election workers to implement voter photo ID.
Hajra Shannon
Reviewer
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