STATEWIDE (NETWORK INDIANA) — Next month you will have a ballot question put to you to amend the state’s constitution.
It has to do with the state’s line of succession should both the positions of governor and lieutenant governor suddenly become vacant. The state constitution currently lists the State Superintendent of Public Instruction as the seventh person in line to temporarily become governor should such a circumstance unfold.
However, the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction no longer exists since it was replaced in 2021 with the appointed position of Secretary of Education. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that a person in the line of succession for governor should be duly elected.
“Just simply given the fact that the governor’s office is an elected position by the voters of the state, a statewide elected office, I think it’s important to have a path for anybody that’s in that position to be somebody that’s at least have to be vetted by the citizens of the state,” said State Rep. J.D. Prescott (R-Union City) on WISH-TV.
“It really doesn’t make sense to have an unelected person on the list of successors to the governor. It’s that simple,” said State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis). “I would say we should never have put that office on that list, but we did and we’re just cleaning up the constitution.”
Prescott called it a simple oversight in forgetting that the State Superintendent of Public Instruction was in the line of succession. The constitutional amendment to correct it was unanimously passed by the state legislature and now requires the approval of voters.
The amendment you will vote on on November 5th will simply be to remove the position from the line of succession and nothing more.
If approved by voters the line of succession should the positions of governor and lieutenant governor suddenly become vacant would be the Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, followed (in order) by the State Senate President Pro Tempore, the Treasurer of State, the Auditor of the State, and the Secretary of State.
If a situation ever occurs where the line of succession needs to be implemented, state lawmakers have 48 hours to convene and pick a new governor. The person they chose must come from the same political party as the governor they are replacing.
