By Deanna Martin

The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mitch Daniels has signed a bill that will allow online voter registration but vetoed another that would expand the use of centralized vote centers.

The election bill Daniels signed will let people with valid driver’s licenses or state identification file voter registration forms over the Internet. Currently, citizens can download registration applications online, but they must print and mail the forms.

Daniels also approved a bill that will require schools to teach students in grades 6 through 12 about personal financial responsibility.

But he vetoed a second election bill late Monday without specifying which parts of the legislation he disliked.

“While this bill contains provisions that would make the act of voting more convenient, it does not contain sufficient safeguards against fraud and abuse and removes long-standing bipartisan checks and balances in the conduct of elections,” Daniels wrote to lawmakers in his veto message.

Daniels’ office said the Republican governor had no further comment about the bill, which contained many provisions affecting different parts of the state.

It would have allowed vote centers in Johnson County, which lost more than 400 voting machines in June flooding. Officials there had hoped to save $2 million by joining Cass, Wayne and Tippecanoe counties as vote center areas, where residents cast ballots at centralized locations instead of individual precincts.

The bill would have also required election officials to tell people casting provisional ballots the steps they must take to have the ballot counted. Supporters said that measure was important since voters who cast provisional ballots often don’t know what to do next.

Secretary of State Todd Rokita, the state’s chief election officer, said candidates and county political party chairmen could find out the names and addresses of people who cast provisional ballots. He had concerns about that measure, saying candidates would hound voters days after the election, but had fought for the vote center legislation.

Rokita wants all counties to be able to use vote centers if they choose, and suggested that lawmakers could take up the issue as they meet in a special session this June to create a budget.

“I would expect, given the serious fiscal condition of the state, that the concept is important enough to find its way into the budget bill so that all 92 counties be given the opportunity to realize the unquestionable taxpayer benefits and savings,” Rokita said in a statement Tuesday.

The vetoed bill would have also changed state law about satellite vote centers, where people can cast absentee ballots in person before an election. Current law requires county election boards to unanimously approve satellite voting spots, but the bill would have only required a majority of the board.

Satellite voting became an issue last fall in Lake County, where Republicans fought to close three early voting locations saying the Democrat-controlled election board had approved them in violation of state law. A special judge and the Indiana Court of Appeals said the centers could remain open.

Also Monday, Daniels vetoed a bill that would have required the fire prevention and building safety commission to adopt by July 2010 one of two energy conservation codes for new commercial buildings and those undergoing significant modifications.

Daniels said the commission is already working to update the state’s energy code.

“While this bill does constitute good policy, it is completely superfluous,” Daniels said in his veto message. “The language of the bill would only serve to clutter the existing Indiana Code without adding in any way to our progress in these areas.”

But Jesse Kharbanda, executive director of the Hoosier Environmental Council, said the law would have led to codes being adopted faster than if the issue is left to the traditional rule-making process. He said quickly adopting one of the codes would encourage businesses to install energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, windows and other systems.

“There was no guarantee that this would get done quickly if it was left simply to the rule-making process,” Kharbanda said. “Our general view is that Indiana is moving at a glacial pace to deal with its carbon footprint and the energy efficiency building code was the one concrete step that had been taken in many years to cut that footprint.”

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Associated Press reporter Rick Callahan contributed to this report.

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On the Web:

Bill watch: www.in.gov/gov/billwatch.htm