First, let’s make a plan to vote. In Indiana, you have a couple options. If you are registered to vote out of state, visit vote.org for information about voting in your state.
In Indiana you must:
- Be registered to vote by October 7, 2024
- Vote in the county in which you are registered.
- Present a valid ID when voting in person (Crimson Cards are valid IDs in Indiana).
Your options for when and where to vote include:
- Vote early between October 8 and November 4 at noon. The locations for voting vary by county (see indianavoters.com). In Marion County the only early voting location between October 8-25 is at the City-County Building, 200 East Washington Street, in Indianapolis. On October 26 additional vote centers open up around the county.
- Request an absentee ballot by October 24. You must meet certain criteria in order to request an absentee ballot. Once you receive your ballot it must be received by the election office (not mailed) by election day, November 5.
- Vote on election day on November 5. Polls are open 6 am – 6 pm. You can vote at any vote center in the county in which you are registered. If you are registered in Marion County you can vote at University Library on the second floor.
Now that you’re registered to vote and know when and how you will vote, do you know what will be on your ballot?
Indiana voters can go to indianavoters.com and look for the ‘Who’s on the ballot’ icon. Out-of-state voters can go to BallotReady or vote411.org. Simply enter your address and select the November 5, 2024 election and it will show you everything that will appear on your ballot when you go to vote.
How can you learn more about the candidates, judges or issues?
Local News
Many local news sources will cover candidates and often will provide questionnaires or interview them. In central Indiana, those news sources include the local television stations, Indianapolis Star, the Indianapolis Business Journal, Indianapolis Recorder, La Voz de Indiana, MirrorIndy, Indiana Capital Chronicle, WFYI, Chalkbeat Indiana and more. Visit their websites or follow them on social media to get updates on their coverage.
Debates
Debates can also be very informative in learning candidates’ views on issues. If you missed a debate, you can often find a recording later.
The Presidential debate was held on September 10, the Vice Presidential debate was held on October 1. Indiana Gubernatorial debates were held on October 2 on FOX 59/CBS4, on October 3 on WISHTV, and October 24 on stations across the state and indianadebatecommission.com.
The IU Public Policy Institute organized a gubernatorial forum with the three candidates for Governor. You can watch the videos of the interviews.
Indiana Attorney General Debate will be streamed on FOX59 at 7:30am and CBS4 and at 9:30am on October 13. A U.S. Senate debate was held on October 29.
Chalkbeat Indiana has a host of voter guides for school board elections in Marion County. An Indianapolis Public Schools candidate debate was held on October 8th at 6pm hosted by WYFI at the Central Library. For other school board races, look at local media or search for endorsements of candidates to inform your vote.
Issue Organizations
Another way to approach the research is to focus on what issues are most important to you and identify organizations active on that issue that might rate or review candidates. One of the challenges with this approach is that they often only rate incumbents and not challengers.
Judicial Retention
Whether to retain someone as a judge is often one of the most challenging questions on a ballot to research. The Indiana Courts does post profiles of the Indiana Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges who are up for retention. And here is an overview of the retention process.
Marion County Judicial Selection Committee released their findings of the judges up for retention. See their findings here and here. The Indianapolis Bar Association also released a poll of attorneys on whether the Marion Superior Court Candidates should be retained.
Information Literacy
If you are concerned about deciphering truth from fiction when researching candidates, you might be interested in completing the Canvas module on Information Literacy or using the SIFT method – stop, investigate the source, find trusted coverage, and trace claims, quotes and media back to the original context.
This blog post will be updated as more information and resources become available.