Indiana voting machines are vulnerable to security issues

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Leslie Wells

To register to vote in Indiana, visit www.indianavoters.in.gov through October 5.

On October 6, Hoosiers will begin casting their ballots during early voting for the 2020 elections. Most of the state’s 4.5 million registered voters will enter their selections using an electronic voting machine. But new analysis from the IU Public Policy Institute finds that Indiana’s reliance on older paperless voting machines poses security risks in the upcoming election.

Indiana is among just eight states nationwide using paperless voting machines for the November 2020 elections. While Louisiana is the only one of those states that is completely reliant upon electronic voting machines, 57 percent of Indiana’s voting equipment produces no paper trail to verify votes.

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Indiana Prison Writers Workshop provides creative outlet to inmates

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Leslie Wells

Behind bars, those serving sentences may feel trapped in a world far different than the one they left behind. By design, prison is uncomfortable and unfamiliar to most. Yet it can also provide an opportunity for growth, especially from programs like the Indiana Prison Writers Workshop.

IPWW is a 12-week creative writing program that serves men in four Indiana correctional facilities. Since it began in 2017, 84 men have participated in the program. IPWW’s goal is to give these men an outlet for expression and help them improve communication skills before they reenter society.

But does it work? A team with the Center for Health and Justice Research at the IU Public Policy Institute partnered with IPWW and the Indiana Department of Correction to find out.

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O’Neill School Dean Siân Mooney named NAPA Fellow

Posted on September 24, 2020 by Leslie Wells

Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean Siân Mooney poses for a portrait at Indiana University Bloomington on Friday, Aug. 9, 2019.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The National Academy of Public Administration today (Sept. 24) announced that 45 leaders in the field of public administration have been selected for the 2020 Class of Academy Fellows.

Among them is Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Dean and Professor Siân Mooney, who joins an extensive list of O’Neill School faculty who have previously been awarded the honor.

Induction of the new Fellows will occur during the annual Academy Fall Meeting, which will take place virtually November 5-10.

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New dashboard will allow comparison of states’ COVID-related executive orders

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Leslie Wells

It’s been more than six months since states first began quarantines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, research from O’Neill IUPUI is shedding new light on the many executive orders enacted to mitigate the spread of the virus.

O’Neill assistant professor Peter Federman, former O’Neill faculty member Cali Curley (now at the University of Miami), and a team of student research assistants began the project in March. A grant from the Office of the Indiana University Vice President for Research helped get the project off the ground, and the O’Neill School provided matching funds. Thus far, they’ve collected and coded more than 1,500 executive orders.

“We’re really focused on tracking and pulling out the critical pieces of information that are impacting people’s lives,” Federman says. “We’re bringing all of it together and providing a simple way for people to understand what’s really happening, without having to read through 60-page orders in legalese.”

In October, they’ll launch their first public dashboard tracking executive orders, from the time when states first started closures until they began to reopen. The idea is to have all the information in one easily accessible place that serves as both a resource on state actions and a record of how state laws are changing because of COVD-19.

“There are a lot of executive orders that touch every aspect of life, well beyond COVID,” Federman says. “This project tracks how the state policy and legal environments are changing as the pandemic stretches on and as states move between reopening and closure.”

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Marion County’s minority residents face barriers to home loans

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Leslie Wells

Family holding a paper cutown of a house in their hands

Minority residents in the United States have historically been met with discriminatory lending practices. For example, redlining denied credit and other financial services to residents in nonwhite neighborhoods. New analysis from the IU Public Policy Institute finds inequities still exist when it comes to home loan lending.

“Owning a home is one of the most important ways families can build wealth and increase their financial security,” says Joti Martin, a policy analyst at the IU Public Policy Institute. “Yet for far too many families of color, the dream of homeownership may still be out of reach because of inequities in home lending practices.”

Martin recently led a team of analysts who examined home loan denials in majority-Black neighborhoods in Marion County, Indiana.

About 1 in 5 people in Marion County live in a neighborhood where most residents are Black. People in these majority-Black areas often face barriers to homeownership, including lower incomes and higher poverty rates. They also face challenges when trying to secure a loan to buy a new home or improve or repair their current home.

The county’s homeownership rate sits at 54 percent but dips to 42 percent in its majority-Black neighborhoods—even though homes in these areas are typically cost less than the average Marion County home.

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