Voting by mail in Indiana

Indiana voters must have a reason to vote by mail for this November election.

However, COVID-19 is not one you can use as an excuse.

I'm hunter petroviak.

Thanks for joining us.in indiana you will not be able to use covid-19 as a concern to vote absentee and the vote by mail option will not expand.fox 55's jentill neal talked to voting officials about what this means for you.

Jentill?hunter, indiana officials say this is going to be a regular election this november with most voters going to the polls.unlike the primary election, you will need a reason to vote by mail..

Something a lot of voters aren't happy about.: indiana voters must have an excuse to vote by mail..

And covid-19 can't be one of them.> 12:24:49-12:25:07"maybe you're going to be working at the polls all day, maybe working at your own job all day, and not able to make it to a voting location on election day.

Any of those reasons.

Another big reason is if you're over the age of 65, you can take advantage of the mail voting."those are only some of the reasons... beth dlug- the director of elections for allen county says there are 12 total that will be accepted for a voter to vote by mail.

Fort wayne resident diana riley says she's voting by mail, and believes everyone should be allowed to do so because of the pandemic.> 12:42:13-12:42:27"that's a good enough reason.

People don't want to come out and deal with all the germs and all the people you're dealing with in a public place.

That's why they come to the grocery store.

Voting is a necessity.

A lot of people are afraid to come out and around other people."but fort wayne resident ross bowman says it shouldn't be a problem.> 12:43:32-12:43:46"with all the precautions that they are putting in place, with the masks and the social distancing.

I don't think it should be a problem at all.

I don't think it should be an excuse."dlug says this will more than likely reduce the amount of mail in absentee ballots.but she says early voting - which is something they already offer - could make a difference.

12:25:48-12:26:14"we only had one week of that in the primary election.

We will also have 70 locations on election day, and we're going to have satelitte locations which we didn't have in the primary election so i think it's going to reduce the amount of people that vote by mail, but i don't think overall we will see a reduction in the amount of people that will vote overall."

Voters can do early voting starting october 6 at the coliseum.

Reporting live in fort wayne jentill neal... fox 55