🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Vote-by-mail requests are being sent in record-breaking numbers in Indiana amid a push from both Democrats and the GOP for people to register to cast their absentee ballot in the state.
Counties have seen all-time highs in requests for such ballots, with Lake County announcing that it is expecting nearly five times the number of its previous record high in 2008.
LeAnn Angerma, assistant director of the Lake County Board of Elections and Registration, told Newsweek the county anticipates 50,000 vote-by-mail applications and 30,000 had already been made. WBBM Radio News reported 11,594 voted by mail in the 2008 presidential election in the county.
Marion County has had more than three times the number of applications for vote-by-mail as 2016. There have been 77,787 requests for absentee vote-by-mail ballots and 21,781 voters have returned their mail ballots already. Just over 21,000 voters requested absentee by mail ballots in 2016, Russell Hollis, deputy director at Marion County Clerk's Office, told Newsweek.
Indiana did not expand the right to vote by mail as many states have amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but both the Indiana Democratic Party and the state's Republican party have urged people to vote via this method.
Each of the parties has pushed applications for mail-in ballots to potential voters.
Indiana Republican Chair Kyle Hupfer told Fox59: "We have a proprietary process to determine who we think are likely Republican voters and likely to vote absentee and so we have always done an absentee push to make it easier for those voters."
There are still more than two weeks for voters in Indiana to register to vote-by-mail, with the deadline for applications being received set at October 22.
There are several reasons people can apply for such ballots in the state, including being at least 65, having a disability or being absent from the county or working for the entire 12 hours polls are open on election day.
Newsweek has contacted the Indiana Democratic party and the Indiana Republican party for comment.
Trump is ahead in polling for Indiana by a double-figure margin, with a 12.4-point lead on average compared to Biden, according to FiveThirtyEight's tracker.
The push for mail-in voting in the state comes after President Donald Trump has raised questions over mail-in voting, suggesting multiple times without evidence that the widespread implementation of this voting method would be open to rampant fraud.
The president has also said he is open to absentee voting, in which an application must be made—but takes issue with universal mail-in voting, where everyone gets such a ballot.
Republican senators have disputed some of Trump's claims regarding mail-in voting.
