I wanted to give you just some basic voting data for Indiana leading into the 2024 General Election. I focused on general elections in presidential years only. I compiled data for 2012, 2016, and 2020.
First, let’s take a look at total registered voters vs actual voter turnout over the past three presidential election cycles.
This is, actually, the most interesting set of data, in my opinion.
In 2012, the population of the Hoosier state was around 6,538,989 people. In 2020, the population was around 6,789,098 people. That’s a population increase of 3.82%. Yet, the number of registered voters increased by 4.31% between 2012 and 2020 with a decrease of 1.61% between 2016 and 2020. There has been a prolonged battle to cure Indiana’s voter rolls by purging registered voters who are no longer legal voters for various reasons.
There have been various attempts to smear Indiana’s attempts to ensure registered voters are, actually, legal voters. The media reported that between 2012 and 2014, Indiana removed 22.4% of its voting population. Yet, the number of registered voters from 2012 to 2016 increased over 6%. For the years in question, where Indiana allegedly removed over 22% of voters, the number of registered voters actually increased 0.83%. Indiana’s attempts to ensure voting integrity have been fought every step of the way by activists.
In 2020, the Center For Public Integrity alleged that “Indiana has made it harder for people to vote.” Well, if that’s the case, why are more people voting? Turnout has continually increased for the main elections. No, looking at primaries and municipal elections where there’s general apathy doesn’t count.
Now onto how voters vote …
As you can see in the chart, since 2012, total voter turnout for presidential year general elections have increased. Hard to do in a state where the liberal activists say Indiana is making it “harder for people to vote.”
Another statistic we see is the ever-decreasing number of people who vote in person and the increasing number who vote absentee. We had COVID in 2020 but the numbers were moving away from voting in person to absentee long before COVID.
The numbers are somewhat staggering.
Absentee voting from 2012 to 2020 increased by over 216%. While in-person voting decreased by over 42%.
In 2014, Pew Research showed Republicans with a 5-point advantage over Democrats in Indiana.
Since 2012, Republican presidential candidates have received higher percentages of votes than Democrats. Part of that could be the Mike Pence factor as the Vice Presidential candidate.
Indiana doesn’t register voters by party affiliation so getting unbiased numbers is difficult. So trends in that regard are hard to see.
More people are moving to Indiana than away from it. Many are from blue states. Republicans would like you to believe they are mostly Republicans fleeing Democrat policies, but Indiana doesn’t have a reputation as a refuge for conservatives. Texas and Florida do, but Indiana does not.
2024 will be an interesting year to evaluate for years to come. The unique circumstances surrounding Trump/Biden 2.0 could provide for temporary anomalies in election patterns or could completely reset the electorate in a way previously unimaginable.
Exclusive: PHM Board Member, Matt Chaffee, Responds To Demands He Resign
Penn-Harris Madison school board member, Matt Chaffee, has responded to last night’s special session vote demanding he step down from the school board with an exclusive press release to me.
In an exclusive press release to me, Matt responds to the vote and hints at what’s to come regarding the allegations against him.
Last month, Real News Michiana published a story accusing Matt Chaffee of hypocrisy in demanding PHM board members resign in the wake of numerous violations by their members. The claim is that Matt was himself engaging in activity that warranted his resignation.
Most local media outlets showed up to last night’s vote to call for Chaffee’s resignation. The media was disinterested in previous press releases they received highlighting several examples of the board president, Chris Riley, and his actions, and the subsequent calls by Matt Chaffee for Chris Riley to resign as a result.
These previous issues included, but are not limited to:
The board losing an illegalSAC complaint with the state.
A parent winning a Civil Rights complaint against the board.
The harassing of parents critical of the board. Including police and employer harassment.
Board President Chris Riley committing several policy violations.
And refusal to punish PHM faculty caught violating policies.
None of those well-documented issues have caught the attention of local media. This angle, however, did.
The same goes for the teacher’s union representatives who circulated an email recruiting people to be at last night’s meeting. They were never interested in showing up to address proven issues with the PHM school board previously.
I wanted to point out that the media has been completely disinterested in corruption and abuse on the PHM board, but the moment a conservative member faced criticism, they showed up.
Here’s Matt Chaffee’s response to what happened last night and the allegations against him: