What to know about new partisan school board labels as early voting begins in Indiana

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Early voting is officially underway across Indiana, and voters are noticing a new change on their ballots this year: partisan labels next to school board candidates.

Chad Kinsella, co-director of the Voting System Technical Oversight Program at Ball State, broke down why some candidates are choosing to list their political party on the ballot even though it's optional.

He also cleared up how this impacts straight-ticket voting.

“Indiana is one of the few states that has kept that, so there is a button that you can push when you go to the polls, which is straight ticket vote, which means everybody is either showing up as an R or a D will get your vote,” said Chad Kinsella, co-director of the Voting System Technical Oversight Program.

Depending on your polling site, hitting that straight-ticket button automatically selects every candidate under that party banner.

Now, that can include partisan school board candidates.

However, you may still be required to individually vote for school board candidates, even if you select straight-ticket vote, because many candidates are running without a party affiliation.

Kinsella spoke on why the other candidates chose to list a political party.

“By putting a partisan label on school board, it's kind of politicizing it, and you can ensure in a lot of places that you get like kind of quote unquote your people on the school board,” Kinsella said. “You don't have to list a political party, and so there have been a lot of people who have decided not to.”

Candidates can choose whether to display their party affiliation or leave it blank.

As election season picks up speed, Kinsella emphasizes why staying informed on local races matters most.

“Those school board races, those county elected, those county officials that that are elected, your state and local people are far more important than the federal people, they are going to have a lot more to do with your day-to-day life, and with the case of school board, your kids' day-to-day life than your congressman or woman, U.S. senators, and even presidents,” Kinsella said.

Data from the Indiana Election Division shows roughly 49 percent of school board candidates statewide chose to remain nonpartisan, 43 percent opted for a party label, and about 7% registered as independent.