VALPARAISO -- Voters would be able to cast ballots at any polling site in their county instead of being limited to their home precincts under a proposal that state officials plan to present to the Indiana Legislature.\nThe pilot program would be modeled after a system used by several Colorado counties, said Secretary of State Todd Rokita and state Rep. Andrew Thomas, R-Brazil. They said they plan to try to persuade lawmakers to pass the program this winter.\nRokita said the precinct system in which people are assigned to vote at sites near their homes does not meet the needs of those who commute long distances to work.\nThere are 125 voting precincts in Porter County and 500 precincts in Lake County, but only one is right for any one voter.\nThe voting center model, devised by a Larimer County, Colo., clerk, shrinks the number of precincts to about 20 for Porter County but allows anyone to vote at any location.\n"Why not vote the way we live?" Rokita said Friday during a visit to Valparaiso.\nRokita, Thomas and a bipartisan delegation of county clerks and state officials went to Colorado in early November to see the system at work.\nThomas, who chairs the legislative House Elections Committee, said the counties would save money because there will be fewer poll workers. Handicapped accessibility would improve because officials could be more selective when choosing polling sites, he said. \nHe was worried about whether voters in rural areas could get to the voting centers. But Larimer County's population density, according to U.S. Census data, is about half the average of Indiana counties and the model appears to be a success.\n"My observation was the voters loved the voting centers," Thomas said.
Thomas said a bill that would allow three counties to volunteer to try the voting center model would have bipartisan support, though lawmakers might not address the bill in the shorter 2006 session.
