Editorial Roundup:

The (Anderson) Herald Bulletin. July 30, 2020.

Gov. Eric Holcomb ought to rethink his position on voting by mail.

'œI am just one of those old-fashioned guys that wants to vote in person,'ť he said at a news conference this month. 'œAnd I also just wanted to see with my own two eyes whether it could be pulled off safely. I voted in Marion County, and it was.'ť

Holcomb should know that one reason voting in the primary went so smoothly is that an unprecedented half a million Hoosiers voted by mail.

And turnout for the November election will no doubt be significantly higher. Presidential elections always draw more voters, and this particular election might be the most consequential in generations.

So, the fact that voting in Marion County might have gone smoothly in June is no indication it will go well in November.

In an interview with The Indianapolis Star, John Zody, the state Democratic Party chair, accused Republicans like Holcomb of playing politics.

'œThey know when more people vote, Democrats tend to win,'ť he said.

Zody's Republican counterpart, Kyle Hupfer, told The Star it was the Democrats who were trying to score political points.

'œThey want to turn voting into a political issue when it's actually an issue of state law,'ť he said.

It might also be an issue of federal law. A group called Indiana Vote by Mail Inc. filed a lawsuit in April claiming Indiana's current restrictions on absentee voting violate the 14th and 26th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Attorney William Groth noted that most states had already eased their restrictions, and he argued Indiana should follow suit. Groth hopes for a ruling in the case this summer.

Acting now to expand absentee voting would mean election officials wouldn't have to scramble should the ruling in that case go against the state.

It would also prepare election officials for the possibility that Indiana might be in the midst of a resurgence of coronavirus cases by the time the election comes around. That's assuming, of course, that we ever get the slowdown we were hoping for with the onset of warmer temperatures in the spring and summer.

State officials should plan for the worst and hope for the best. They should listen to groups like Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP and expand vote by mail to anyone who wants it.

That wouldn't keep folks like the governor from voting in person, but it might mean shorter lines at polling places this fall.

There is really no reason not to make voting more accessible. We all have a right to make our voices heard, and we shouldn't have to sacrifice our health to do so.

South Bend Tribune. July 31, 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced adjustments in the way the census has been conducted.

But one thing hasn't changed: the importance of getting an accurate count.

Even in normal times, getting people to respond to the once-in-a-decade census is a challenge.

The new normal has created additional complications, as noted in a recent Tribune report. The pandemic has delayed the census, which ordinarily would be wrapped up. Instead, it has been extended through Oct. 31.

The U.S. Census Bureau last week mailed another round of reminder postcards to an estimated 34.3 million households that haven't responded yet and is set to send out in-person census takers in mid-August.

Here in Indiana, the response rate is at 66.6%, compared with the 69.6% self-response rate it ended with in 2010. St. Joseph County's self-response rate is at 65%, lagging its 2010 final self-response rate of 70.5%. South Bend's current overall self-response rate is 59.9%; its final rate in 2010 was 66.2%.

There's a lot at stake: The information collected in the census is used by the federal government to determine how to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars -toward Medicaid, food stamps, highway projects and other programs. Congress also uses the results to reapportion seats in the House of Representatives for the next decade.

The Indianapolis Business Journal has noted that nearly $18 billion is on the line for Indiana, which is how much in annual federal funding the state receives based on population data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

It's estimated that for every person missed in the count, Indiana will lose about $10,000 in federal funds over the next decade. The chairman of the Every Hoosier Child Counts! coalition wrote last year that children from birth to age 4 and ages 5 to 9 are the two age groups most likely to be undercounted, with African American and Hispanic young children having a higher net undercount than other children. One in five children were missed in the 2010 census because their family did not return the form; four in five lived in families that returned the form but didn't include the young child on it.

You can still mail in the paper questionnaire sent this spring, call 844-330-2020, or go online to 2020census.gov. It's easy to complete and doing so supports your community. With so much at stake, it's critical that everyone be counted.

The (Munster) Times. July 29, 2020.

We've witnessed plenty of examples in our national and regional political spectrum of politicians doubling down when missteps or scandal should have brought apologies or resignations.

So the recent move by the Indiana Republican Party to cut its losses with a scandal-ridden attorney general incumbent deserves praise.

The party made the right move Friday, nominating former Congressman and Munster native Todd Rokita to be its candidate on the attorney general ticket at the 2020 polls.

The decision ousted incumbent Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill.

Hill, a former Elkhart County prosecutor and once rising star among Republicans, became the state's first black male attorney general four years ago. Those circumstances were an overdue piece of history.

But Hill's political star dimmed two years ago after four women, including state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster, accused Hill of groping them at an Indianapolis party.

Rokita wins Republican nomination for Indiana attorney general

Although Hill denied the allegations and a special prosecutor opted not to charge Hill with criminal wrongdoing, the Indiana Supreme Court acted in May to suspend Hill's law license for 30 days for ethical lapses.

Hill should have stepped down rather than dragging the state through his scandal. But he refused.

A convention of GOP delegates rightly showed him the door this weekend after three rounds of voting, choosing to replace a sitting attorney general on the ballot with Rokita.

Now Northwest Indiana has a native son on the ballot for one of the state's highest constitutional offices.

More importantly, the office of Indiana attorney general has a shot at regaining respectability.

Rokita will face former Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel in the fall general election.

Rokita is more than just a favorite son of the Region. He has a distinguished record.

He graduated from Munster High School in 1988, received a bachelor's degree from Wabash College in Crawfordsville - where he was selected as an Eli Lilly Fellow - in 1992 and a law degree from Indiana University in 1995.

Rivals for Indiana's Democratic attorney general nomination uniting to help party win in November

As a past secretary of state, Rokita began his career as a modernizer, helping the Indiana secretary of state's office turn its paper records into electronic ones available to the public online.

Having worked his way up that office's administrative ladder in 2002, he won election, at age 32, as Indiana secretary of state, the youngest such state official in the nation at the time.

He won that office again in 2006. Term limits prompted him to run successfully as U.S. representative for the 4th Congressional District, and he served in that post from 2011 to 2019.

After falling short in bids for governor and U.S. senator, Rokita has earned a shot at becoming the state's top legal adviser.

As it stands, that legal advice will rise from much more solid ground than the sinkhole that has enveloped Hill's standing.