David Waldron

Early voting in Marion County — Update

After civil rights lawsuit, Marion County voters will have unprecedented access to early voting.

Oct 26, 2018

A number of things have happened since I last wrote about the difficulty of early voting in Marion County compared to neighboring counties in Indiana. The preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District court in April had required at least two satellite early voting sites in addition to the downtown site in the City-County Building. The lawsuit—brought by Common Cause and the Indianapolis chapter of the NAACP—was settled in early July, with the Marion County Election Board agreeing to open 5 satellite early voting centers for the 2018 election and every subsequent election. Later in the month, the election board unanimously approved 6 satellite locations for early voting this year. These sites are in addition to the central voting site in the City-County Building.

Using these seven locations, I've recalculated the shortest drive times for every census block in the county and put together this quick comparison of early voting access between the 2016 general election and the upcoming general election.

Drag the slider to change the view.

Drive time to nearest early voting location: 2016 vs 2018
2016 drive times 2018 drive times
Census TIGER data, Marion County Election Board, OpenStreetMap, CARTO; drive times calculated with GraphHopper

All 7 early voting locations are open every single day from today until Sunday, November 4th. See the election board's website for hours and GO VOTE!

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