By Marilyn Odendahl for The Indiana Citizen.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the Indiana Citizen-Free Press Indiana-Public News Service Collaboration.

Not sure you have time to vote?

IN Tech for Progress, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Indianapolis, has updated its app - Indianavotetimes.org - to help you find the shortest wait time to cast your ballot so you can still do whatever else you need to do that day. The app, currently listing information for only Marion, Boone and Vigo counties, shows each voting center in those counties and then gives the estimated time Hoosiers will have to wait in line to get to the check-in table, where they sign the poll book and get their ballot.

Roger Deetz, CEO and founder of IN Tech for Progress, said the hope is that the app will help encourage more people to vote and improve Indiana's poor voter turnout rate. The state has been falling in voter participation compared to other states, dropping from 38^th place in the 2012 presidential election to 46^th in 2020, according to the 2023 Indiana Civic Health Index.

"As Indiana technology workers, we're passionate about a thriving democracy, and if we can give back to the community to help sort of improve Indiana's civic engagement ... (we) were interested in doing that," Deetz said.

IN Tech for Progress led the development of the updated app with help from 10 to 12 volunteers who contributed over the course of 2024. The app runs on IN Tech for Progress systems.

The voting times app is accessible from any web browser, whether on a desktop or mobile device. Voters can visit the website, select one of the three available counties and then see the voting centers that are open, when they will close and how long the wait times are for each location.

Since Marion, Boone and Vigo counties use vote centers, Deetz said, voters can use the app to determine which voting site is best for them by seeing where the sites are located and how long the wait times are.

Although the app was launched Oct. 8, the day early voting began in Indiana, the voting sites are showing "wait time not reported" because little or no data has been entered. However, voters can bolster the app's pool of data by tapping the "Check In" button at the bottom of the screen and inputting real-time information. Once they have accessed the app, voters are asked two questions - how many people are standing in line ahead of you and how many people are behind you - and the answers are put through an algorithm, which calculates the wait time.

"We're hoping folks, just out of civic spirit, will check in and kind of share their experience," Deetz said.

Deetz emphasized IN Tech does not collect, share or sell any data on individual voters who use the app. In the past, the nonprofit provided aggregated data to some legislators who had questions about vote centers, which he sees as helping to achieve the app's mission.

IN Tech's goal is to not only provide a "great tool just for citizens to help them successfully vote," Deetz said, but also to help inform public policy. If voters have to wait in long lines, he added, perhaps the aggregated data from the app can offer some insight for conversations about the number and locations of voting centers.

"People, in my view, shouldn't have to wait very long to vote," Deetz said.

The pastrami on rye test

The app was initially developed and introduced for the November 2020 election, when the presidential contest between Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden was anticipated to attract more voters than usual.

In that first year, the app gave wait times for only Marion County vote centers and relied on about 100 volunteers stationed at polling sites to input the data about the number of people waiting in line, Deetz said. About 60,000 voters in Indianapolis used the app during the 2020 election, he said, which signaled a demand for wait-time information.

However, the tech team realized the use of volunteers would not be scalable as they included more counties, Deetz said. So, the developers rebuilt the internal machinery to use crowdsourced submissions.

A version "halfway in between" using wait time info from both volunteers and voters was offered for the 2022 November mid-term election, Deetz said. The "pathetic turnout" for the election in Indiana, he said, did not yield much insight for the tech team, because so few voters showed up at the polls and used the app.

Meeting in January 2024, the tech crew sketched a project plan and then began completely redesigning the 2020 app, Deetz said. The team made a handful of fixes and small improvements, so the app would be more functional for voters in more counties.

"We took a lot of inspiration from the design of that first app," Deetz said. "We learned what worked well and what didn't and what was kind of hard for us to manage, and we tried to incorporate that into the design for the new 2024 version."

During the development phase, the team dispatched a volunteer to Shapiro's Delicatessen, south of downtown Indianapolis, to test the accuracy of the algorithm that is used to crunch the crowdsourced data. The volunteer observed the lunch line and inputted the data into the app, which was then run through the algorithm to learn how long diners would have to wait to get their sandwiches.

"It worked out really well," Deetz said of the deli test.

Boone and Vigo counties were selected for the expansion because they have vote centers, Deetz said. Also, because Vigo is home to Indiana State University and Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, IN Tech is hoping students will provide a lot of crowdsourced data.

IN Tech aims to have the app collecting and dispensing voting wait times for every Indiana county by either the 2026 mid-term or the 2028 general election, Deetz said.

As early voting hours expand and voting centers open on Saturday, Deetz expects more wait-time information will be entered and the app will become more useful to voters. Also Deetz said he is hopeful voter turnout will increase.

"We want to make Indiana a great place to live and work and we believe part of that means political change," Deetz said, adding IN Tech is not affiliated with any political party or any candidate running for office. "Just having (tech) folks that are willing to do some extra work, nights and weekends, and being civically inspired, I think that's a great indicator that there is a community here willing to work towards that vision for Indiana."


Marilyn Odendahl wrote this article for The Indiana Citizen.


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New York good government groups want a more robust state ethics commission.

The Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government came about in 2022 after the dissolution of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Watchdog groups want the agency to implement several measures to improve ethics, lobbying oversight and transparency.

Rachael Fauss, senior policy analyst for the advocacy group Reinvent Albany, said one recommendation is to have lobby reports include a lobbyist and client position on legislation.

"Right now, you don't know when you look at the lobby filings," Fauss pointed out. "What you see is that a person or a company lobbied on a bill, but you don't know if they were supporting or opposing it. We think that's crucial information for the public to have."

Other recommendations include fully electronic lobby filings and ethics disclosures, and publishing what ethics advice the commission gives to elected officials who seek it out. Fauss noted one challenge to implement changes is the commission's budget, which some feel needs to be an independent line item.

It is uncertain whether the changes can occur because the commission's constitutionality is being challenged by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He alleges the commission is too independent and the governor should have control of the body. The New York State Supreme Court agreed and declared it unconstitutional.

Fauss noted the Court of Appeals' decision will determine its future.

"If part of the court ruling allows it to exist in its current form until an amendment can be voted on, then I think it is less disruptive," Fauss explained. "The other option is that the Legislature or governor would have to change the commission structure under that new constitutional framework."

If a new ethics commission was established through an amendment, it would not come to fruition until at least 2027 or 2028 because the state Legislature has to pass an ethics commission bill in two consecutive legislative sessions before an amendment can be put before voters. Arguments in the case will be held on Jan. 7.


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The 2024 presidential election has raised complex emotions for incarcerated Ohioans, many of whom are unable to vote but remain deeply engaged in political discussions.

As a group often left out of political discourse, their views on the election reflect a broader desire for involvement in decisions that directly affect their lives.

Nicole Lewis, engagement editor for The Marshall Project, talked about the findings of its new survey of Ohio's incarcerated population.

"Many of the people who oversee the system are elected officials, sheriffs, judges, district attorneys," Lewis observed. "and so incarcerated people have a really unique perspective on how well the people in those roles are executing their jobs."

The presidential election held particular significance this year, with concerns about criminal justice reform, sentencing policies and who can participate in elections. Despite limited news access, many voiced strong opinions about candidates, especially former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor.

Lewis noted the broader implications of the political divide, especially in how those inside view figures like Trump and Harris.

"Many, many people told us, 'How can I move forward?'" Lewis reported. "'How can I believe that society would want me back if they're so willing to cast Donald Trump aside and make his felony convictions a complete disqualification for public office?'"

While people in prison in Ohio may not have had the opportunity to vote in the 2024 election, advocates said their voices and perspectives are crucial to understanding the political landscape. Their insights, shaped by years behind bars, are particularly relevant as more individuals regain the right to vote upon release and the effects of their views could shape the future of both criminal justice reform and electoral engagement nationwide.


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Wisconsinites overwhelmingly voted 'yes' on a record number of school funding measures, according to a new Wisconsin Policy Forum study. The appeals essentially asked voters to increase their own property taxes to fund school operations across the state. Voters favored a record number 169 referendums, authorizing a record total of $4.4 billion in new funding for 145 school districts.

Denise Gaumer Hutchison, Northwest regional organizer with the Wisconsin Public Education Network, said districts are being forced to take their needs to the ballot box to fund gaps between prioritizing students and overdue bills.

"The first responsibility of our public schools across the state is to educate children and to take care of the kids and the families they serve, every single day," she said. "So, that means any available funds that public schools have they put toward educating children. And so, if that means a boiler has to be patched rather than replaced, that's what they're going to do."

Almost half of the state's 421 school districts passed a referendum in April or November. Hutchison blames the state for not adequately funding school priorities, from building maintenance, to student mental-health services. The state superintendent announced last week the proposed 2025-27 budget would include $4 billion more in spending for public schools.

Despite 78% of the ballot measures passing, Hutchson said the districts where voters turned them down are in dire need of support to keep their doors open. Regardless of whether taxpayers have children in public schools, she says, the focus should be on providing every Wisconsin student with a quality education.

"I want their experience in public schools to be as awesome as my 25 and 26-year-old's were. I want them to get to be able to participate in sports, in theater, in drama and DECA, and learn about the history of our state and our country, and think about what our state and our country can be," she continued.

The study found factors like inflation outpacing the state allocated per-student revenue limits, the loss of pandemic aid and staff competition in a tight labor market are all factors that contributed to the record number of referendums.


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