Indiana

Indiana to check voter rolls for noncitizens with revamped federal system

Published

3 months ago

July 8, 2025

Indiana to check voter rolls for noncitizens with revamped federal system

Indiana will soon be scanning voter rolls for noncitizens after receiving access to a revamped federal system, Secretary of State Diego Morales announced on July 7.

The move comes after Morales and Attorney General Todd Rokita asked U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for help in verifying the citizenship of 600,000 voters less than a month before the 2024 general election. Voting rights advocates denounced the announcement at the time, fearing it would disenfranchise eligible voters who don’t have easy access to the documents required to prove citizenship.

The agency, operating under President Joe Biden’s administration at the time, never granted the request.

The information now available to Indiana is called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, data system, which was overhauled with help from the Department of Government Efficiency beginning in April to eliminate fees and allow for easier mass checks.

“As someone who knows firsthand what it means to earn U.S. citizenship, I deeply value the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship — especially the right to vote. This agreement is another step in safeguarding the rights of every eligible Hoosier voter and reflects our commitment to protecting the integrity of our elections,” said Morales, who is a naturalized citizen from Guatemala, in a news release.

How will I know if my eligibility is at risk?

Voters who are flagged by the system and cannot have their citizenship verified by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will be notified via mail and given 30 days to provide proof of citizenship, according to House Enrolled Act 1264.

Some citizens may receive such notification, as those who registered to vote before 2005 did not have to provide their Social Security number or state-issued ID.

The 2024 law defines proof of citizenship as a birth certificate, passport, naturalization document or naturalization number. Legible photocopies are also acceptable.

If the individual is unable to provide documentation, they can appeal to the county election board. The board’s decision will be forwarded to the county voter registration office, which will ensure records reflect the verdict.

Will SAVE data be used for criminal investigations and deportation?

It’s unclear how the revamped data system and its partnerships with states will impact federal immigration enforcement efforts.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to IndyStar’s request for comment by publication, including whether it will use the new collaboration to detain, deport or investigate undocumented immigrants.

The lack of information has generated some concern, including from a state election official who told National Public Radio (NPR) they worried the information would be used to aid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

When asked if the efforts would be used to facilitate immigration enforcement or criminal prosecution, a spokesperson for the Indiana Secretary of State’s office said local election officials should forward evidence of noncitizen voting to law enforcement.

What voting rights advocates are saying

Julia Vaughn of Common Cause Indiana, an advocacy group that focuses on voting rights and government transparency, said SAVE was never intended for verifying voter eligibility; instead, it’s historically been used to determine whether someone can receive government benefits by checking their immigration status.

Data contained within SAVE is sometimes out-of-date and inaccurate, she said, presenting a real possibility that citizens will be mistaken as noncitizens.

She pointed to a similar program from Kansas called Crosscheck, which compares voter registration data with lists from participating states and looks for matches that prove someone is registered twice.

But a 2017 study found 99.5% of voters with name and date of birth matches within the Crosscheck system were in fact two separate individuals, creating the risk that someone could be falsely identified as an ineligible voter.

The system led to a class action lawsuit that alleged the program exposed sensitive personal information of voters suspected to be ineligible. One of the plaintiffs, for example, had parts of his Social Security number shared over unencrypted emails with the state of Florida because a man who lived there shared the same name as the plaintiff.

While the Indiana process allows potentially misidentified voters to prove their citizenship, merely missing a piece of mail could cost someone to lose their opportunity to vote. Vaughn said she fears people who are cleared from the voter rolls may only find out when they go to the polls.

The risk is not worth it to Vaughn, who called the concept of noncitizen voters a “popular misperception.”

There is little evidence to support widespread voting by noncitizens. An audit in Georgia found a little more than 1,600 potential noncitizens attempted to register to vote from 1997 to Feb. 2022, but none were successful.

“It’s a continuation of misguided public policy based on myths,” Vaughn said, “and really doesn’t address the very real election issues that we have here in Indiana, which is evidenced by our very low voter turnout.”

Contact Marissa Meador at mmeador@gannett.com or find her on X at @marissa_meador.

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Indiana

This week’s Indiana high school football playoff matchups

Published

17 hours ago

October 20, 2025

Press Room

This week’s Indiana high school football playoff matchups

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana High School Athletic Association’s (IHSAA) football postseason has arrived.

This week will be the first week of high school playoff football across the Hoosier State.

No teams in Class 6A will be playing this week. Instead, they all have a week off before beginning postseason play on Friday, Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, most of Class 5A has the week off as well, although there will be one matchup this Friday. Whiteland will travel to Seymour to take on the Owls this Friday night in a first-round sectional contest.

The other classes across the state (4A, 3A, 2A and 1A) will all begin postseason play though this Friday with first-round sectional matchups.

Here is a look at the Class 4A playoff games this week:

Sectional 17 – Hanover Central at Lowell
Sectional 17 – Highland at East Chicago Central
Sectional 17 – Kankakee Valley at Gary West Side
Sectional 17 – New Prairie at Hobart
Sectional 18 – Plymouth at South Bend Washington
Sectional 18 – Mishawaka at NorthWood
Sectional 18 – Wawasee at Northridge
Sectional 18 – South Bend Riley at South Bend St. Joseph
Sectional 19 – Fort Wayne Wayne at Fort Wayne South Side
Sectional 19 – New Haven at East Noble
Sectional 19 – Columbia City at DeKalb
Sectional 19 – Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger at Leo
Sectional 20 – Lebanon at Culver Academies
Sectional 20 – Muncie Central at Marion
Sectional 20 – Huntington North at Logansport
Sectional 21 – Beech Grove at Richmond
Sectional 21 – Pendleton Heights at Mt. Vernon (Fortville)
Sectional 21 – New Castle at Greenfield-Central
Sectional 22 – Shortridge at Danville
Sectional 22 – Roncalli at Northview
Sectional 22 – Bishop Chatard at Mooresville
Sectional 22 – Crispus Attucks at Brebeuf Jesuit
Sectional 23 – Bedford North Lawrence at Jennings County
Sectional 23 – Connersville at Shelbyville
Sectional 23 – Martinsville at Greenwood
Sectional 23 – Silver Creek at Charlestown
Sectional 24 – Evansville Central at Evansville Reitz
Sectional 24 – Heritage Hills at Washington
Sectional 24 – Jasper at Boonville
Sectional 24 – Evansville Bosse at Evansville Harrison

Here is a look at the Class 3A playoff games this week:

Sectional 25 – Glenn at Calumet
Sectional 25 – Mishawaka Marian at River Forest
Sectional 25 – Griffith at Hammond Bishop Noll
Sectional 25 – Knox at Jimtown
Sectional 26 – Garrett at Fairfield
Sectional 26 – Woodlan at Lakeland
Sectional 26 – Tippecanoe Valley at Angola
Sectional 26 – Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran at West Noble
Sectional 27 – Northwestern at Peru
Sectional 27 – Maconaquah at Twin Lakes
Sectional 27 – West Lafayette at Western
Sectional 27 – Frankton at Benton Central
Sectional 28 – Mississinewa at Oak Hill
Sectional 28 – Jay County at Bellmont
Sectional 28 – Norwell at Heritage
Sectional 28 – Fort Wayne Bishop Luers at Delta
Sectional 29 – Cascade at Indianapolis George Washington
Sectional 29 – Tri-West Hendricks at West Vigo
Sectional 29 – Speedway at Crawfordsville
Sectional 29 – Guerin Catholic at Hamilton Heights
Sectional 30 – Franklin County at Batesville
Sectional 30 – Greensburg at Purdue Polytechnic-Downtown
Sectional 30 – Rushville Consolidated at South Dearborn
Sectional 31 – Owen Valley at Madison Consolidated
Sectional 31 – Corydon Central at North Harrison
Sectional 31 – Edgewood at Scottsburg
Sectional 32 – Gibson Southern at Vincennes Lincoln
Sectional 32 – Mt. Vernon at Southridge
Sectional 32 – Evansville Mater Dei at Princeton Community

Here is a look at the Class 2A playoff games this week:

Sectional 33 – Wheeler at Lake Station Edison
Sectional 33 – Rensselaer Central at Boone Grove
Sectional 33 – Bremen at Whiting
Sectional 34 – Delphi Community at Southmont
Sectional 34 – North Putnam at Western Boone
Sectional 34 – Lafayette Central Catholic at Seeger
Sectional 34 – Lewis Cass at North Montgomery
Sectional 35 – Prairie Heights at Manchester
Sectional 35 – Whitko at Eastside
Sectional 35 – Central Noble at Adams Central
Sectional 35 – Bluffton at Churubusco
Sectional 36 – Eastbrook at Alexandria Monroe
Sectional 36 – Rochester Community at Elwood Community
Sectional 36 – Eastern (Greentown) at Blackford
Sectional 36 – Wabash at Tipton
Sectional 37 – Indianapolis Lutheran at Covenant Christian
Sectional 37 – Heritage Christian at Cardinal Ritter
Sectional 37 – Monrovia at Scecina
Sectional 38 – Northeastern at Shenandoah
Sectional 38 – Triton Central at Centerville
Sectional 38 – Lapel at Winchester Community
Sectional 38 – Eastern Hancock at Union County
Sectional 39 – Sullivan at South Vermillion
Sectional 39 – Pike Central at North Posey
Sectional 39 – Greencastle at Brown County
Sectional 39 – Mitchell at Linton-Stockton
Sectional 40 – Crawford County at Clarksville
Sectional 40 – Salem at Switzerland County
Sectional 40 – Brownstown Central at Tell City
Sectional 40 – Eastern (Pekin) at Paoli

Here is a look at the Class 1A playoff games this week:

Sectional 41 – LaVille at Culver Community
Sectional 41 – North Judson-San Pierre at South Central (Union Mills)
Sectional 41 – West Central at South Newton
Sectional 41 – North Newton at Bowman Academy
Sectional 42 – Frontier at Tri-County
Sectional 42 – Pioneer at Caston
Sectional 42 – Carroll (Flora) at Winamac Community
Sectional 42 – North White at Taylor
Sectional 43 – North Miami at Northfield
Sectional 43 – Southern Wells at Triton
Sectional 43 – Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian at Fremont
Sectional 44 – Union City at Hagerstown
Sectional 44 – Cambridge City Lincoln at Monroe Central
Sectional 44 – Madison-Grant at South Adams
Sectional 44 – Wes-Del at Tri
Sectional 45 – Attica at South Putnam
Sectional 45 – Parke Heritage at Fountain Central
Sectional 45 – Covington at North Central (Farmersburg)
Sectional 45 – Riverton Parke at North Vermillion
Sectional 46 – Clinton Central at Cloverdale
Sectional 47 – South Decatur at Eastern Greene
Sectional 47 – West Washington at Knightstown
Sectional 47 – Greenwood Christian at North Decatur
Sectional 48 – Forest Park at Springs Valley
Sectional 48 – Providence at North Knox
Sectional 48 – North Daviess at Perry Central
Sectional 48 – South Spencer at Tecumseh

Of course, as always, be sure to tune into The Zone on Friday night beginning at 11:08 on WISH-TV for highlights from the first week of the high school football postseason.

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Indiana

Indiana football is up to No. 2 in the AP Top 25

Published

1 day ago

October 19, 2025

Press Room

Indiana football is up to No. 2 in the AP Top 25

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Hoosier football team moved up one spot to No. 2 in this week’s Associated Press college football poll.

The move comes after Indiana dominated Michigan State, 38-13, in the Old Brass Spittoon Game on Saturday afternoon in Bloomington, while last week’s second-ranked team, Miami, was upset by unranked Louisville at home, 24-21, on Friday night.

The No. 2 spot breaks the record the Hoosiers set just last week for the highest ranking in program history. Indiana also received six first-place votes, the only No. 1 votes top-ranked Ohio State didn’t receive in this week’s poll.

The Hoosiers and Buckeyes are both 7-0 and the only two undefeated (4-0) teams left in the Big Ten. They are on track to meet in the Big Ten Championship Game at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, December 6.

There are seven teams sitting at 3-1 in Big Ten play, including Indiana’s opponent on Saturday, UCLA. The matchup will be featured on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff. You can watch the game on FOX59.

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Fernando Mendoza proving Indiana football has ‘the best quarterback in college football’

Published

2 days ago

October 19, 2025

Press Room

Fernando Mendoza proving Indiana football has ‘the best quarterback in college football’

BLOOMINGTON — As Indiana’s historic season has unfolded across the last several weeks, a minor urban legend has taken hold here in Bloomington.

It’s been said that, on more than one occasion, team staffers checking in on the football offices late into the evening have found one light on, and one man working under its glare.

There, they discover Fernando Mendoza — a quarterback Curt Cignetti repeatedly describes as among the hardest-working he’s ever coached — combing through film and studying keys, long after teammates and even coaches have gone home.

It turns out this is the product of a scheduling quirk. Mendoza, who graduated from Cal-Berkeley with a business degree in just three years, maintains a strict and detailed daily schedule. One that often includes evening film study and solo preparation.

Most of the time, Mendoza told IndyStar, his day concludes somewhere between 9 and 9:30 p.m., when he returns to the off-campus apartment he shares with his brother and backup, Alberto.

But on Thursdays, Mendoza makes a point to take his offensive line out to dinner. Never one to abbreviate that routine, Mendoza pushes those end-of-day sessions a little later in the evening.

Usually, his Thursdays wrap sometime between 10 and 11 p.m. He’ll lengthen his day before he shortens his process.

As Mendoza’s first — and perhaps only — season in Bloomington matures, more and more teammates, coaches and fans are coming to appreciate the meticulousness with which he approaches his job, one he is doing just about as well as any player in the country right now.

After another superlative performance Saturday afternoon, one interrupted by lightning but never Michigan State, it’s fair now to start believing the answer to the question, “Can Fernando Mendoza win the Heisman Trophy?” is, in fact, yes.

“Don’t ever tell him I said this, because he hates hearing stuff like this,” wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. said. “I feel like we’ve got the best quarterback in college football.”

IU students certainly made up their minds Saturday evening when, near the conclusion of a rain-soaked 38-13 homecoming victory over Michigan State, they began “HeisMendoza.”

Or maybe it’s “Heisman-doza.” We have time to work out the spelling, but the conversation needs having. Because Mendoza, who on Saturday helped Indiana retain the Old Brass Spittoon for the first time since 1969, certainly looks the part.

The redshirt junior widely considered among the best NFL prospects at his position in this draft class before the season began has done little to temper those expectations across the Hoosiers’ 7-0 (4-0 in Big Ten play) start.

He was ruthless against Illinois. He delivered game-winning moments in hard-fought victories at Iowa and at Oregon. And on Saturday, he unpacked Michigan State’s defense to the tune of 24 of 28, for 332 yards and four touchdowns.

Mendoza was not sacked once. He mixed in a handful of important quarterback runs, including one that converted a key third down. And he saved his best for his last, Mendoza’s final touchdown pass a 27-yarder dropped into a bucket, right on Elijah Sarratt’s facemask.

“This is the sharpest we’ve seen him, up to this point, in a game,” Cignetti said. “He continues to improve. He continues to prepare like nobody I’ve ever been around, and he’s getting better and better.”

Indiana’s coach has not always praised so publicly his latest transfer quarterback success.

A former quarterback himself, and a coach with considerable success developing players at that position, Cignetti keeps a high standard for his signal callers. Even as he often suggests quarterbacks get both too much praise and too much blame, that did not stop him demanding excellence of Kurtis Rourke, in 2024, and it has not stopped him setting the bar just as high (if not higher) for Mendoza, in 2025.

Increasingly, the Miami native is clearing it.

While it was not the toughest test he’s seen or will see in an Indiana uniform, Saturday felt in some ways like Mendoza’s most complete game thus far as a Hoosier.

The accuracy, the arm talent and the leadership qualities have always shined through, virtually since the day he set foot on campus in winter. The Spartans, though, felt the full force of a quarterback who looks more comfortable now than he has at any point so far this season.

Forty-one (41) sacks last season at Cal left Mendoza, by his own admission, with some undeniably bad habits: a lack of trust in protection, antsy feet in the pocket, a lack of comfort cycling through three or four reads each dropback.

Cignetti, quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan spent the offseason slowing Mendoza down, teaching him to trust, preaching patience and helping Mendoza understand the next level he could reach. The level his game now approaches.

Already an impressive quarterback with the Bears, Mendoza is now joining — whether he’ll admit it or not — conversations about the best quarterback in the country.

In fact, he’s more than joining them. He’s beginning to define them.

Mendoza teased this top-of-the-game dominance when he turned in back-to-back performances of similar quality against Indiana State and Illinois, two ends to the competitive spectrum that each suggested Mendoza’s abilities independent of the stage or the stakes.

“We have so many great players on our team,” Mendoza said. “Whatever spotlight that I might get from the offense’s success, I’m just trying to dish it out to all my teammates, because they really deserve it.”

He was not perfect at Iowa, nor at Oregon. But those are moments when a quarterback should be tough, not perfect, and in each game Mendoza delivered in the pivotal moment. First, the touchdown pass to Sarratt in Iowa City, then that decisive 12-play, 75-yard touchdown drive responding to his own pick-six in the fourth quarter against the Ducks.

On that decisive drive in Eugene, Mendoza was 5 of 7, for 62 yards and what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown.

No such heroics were required Saturday. Just a steady hand and a cool head. Mendoza delivered both.

“He keeps building on previous performances,” Cignetti said. “I can’t say enough good things about him.”

A Heisman Trophy, like a national championship, is a difficult thing to win. That Indiana and its rapidly ascending quarterback approach Halloween chasing both speaks to the remarkable nature of this remarkable season.

There are still miles left to travel. No Big Ten schedule forgives complacency, the thing that might be Cignetti’s greatest enemy between now and the end of the season.

So long as IU’s offensive line keeps Mendoza upright — he took no sacks Saturday — quarterback play isn’t something Cignetti needs to sweat. He’s got a good one. Maybe a great one.

Maybe the best, as Cooper suggested, in all of college football.

Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar’s Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.

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