The Indiana legislature adjourned for the year on April 22. Not a single election law bill passed. The most interesting election law bill was SB 418, which eased ballot access. It had passed the Senate Elections Committee but then the author, Senator Greg Walker (R-Columbus), withdrew it, although he says he will introduce it in 2018. He says he needs more time to persuade other legislators to support it.
Bills were introduced to tinker around the edges with the straight-ticket device, to authorize ranked-choice voting, and to have Indiana join the National Popular Vote Plan, but none of those bills passed either.
Shame about the failure of Walker to keep going with his bill. The Republican Party have a majority in both the State House and Senate, so if, by-and-large, Republicans supported it, it’d pass easy. Some of them probably fear harder elections, as the Libertarian Party runs pretty regularly throughout the state.
Hope he can get more people behind it when he brings it up next year.