Proposed Indiana voting law change faces corporate criticism

FILE- In this April 26, 2017, file photo shows the Eli Lilly and Co. corporate headquarters in Indianapolis. Eli Lilly’s new COVID-19 treatment helped the drugmaker’s fourth-quarter profit surge even though U.S. regulators approved its use late in the quarter. The antibody treatment bamlanivimab brought in $871 million in sales for Lilly after the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use in November 2020 for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. . (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — One of Indiana’s most prominent corporations is criticizing an Indiana proposal that opponents maintain will make mail-in voting more difficult by requiring voters to submit identification numbers with their ballot applications.

The bill’s Republican sponsors say the proposal is aimed at preventing voter fraud by having similar voter ID requirements for mail voting as the state requires of people casting ballots in-person at polling sites.

Eli Lilly and Co. senior vice president Stephen Fry told a legislative committee Tuesday that the company believed the bill wasn’t needed and will “perpetuate the narrative that the 2020 election outcome was flawed or compromised.”