Election 2023 notebook: Polling locations set, ballot inspection on Feb. 15, registration deadline April 3
In a Thursday afternoon meeting that lasted about six and a half minutes, Monroe County’s three-member election board dispatched all the resolutions related to setting polling locations for the May 2 primary elections.
There will be 17 polling locations for Bloomington’s city elections and one for Ellettsville. The board voted not to hold elections in Stinesville, because there are no contested races.
Monroe County commissioners still need to sign off on the poll locations.
Because two clerk/treasurer candidates submitted their paperwork last Friday, on the final day it could be filed, a Republican Party primary will be held in Ellettsville. The Republican primary for Ellettsville clerk/treasurer will be a three-way race between: Noelle Conyer, Dan Swafford, and Paul Turner.
Uncontested races appear on the ballot, because that’s the way the law reads, election board chair Donovan Garletts noted at Thursday’s meeting. The election board could pass a resolution that leaves uncontested races off the ballot, but no board action is required in order to place uncontested races on the ballot.
The board passed a motion to acknowledge the fact that both party chairs had relayed their preference to the election board that the names of candidates in uncontested races still appear on the ballot.
In Bloomington, that means Nicole Bolden’s name will appear as the only candidate for clerk in the Democratic Party’s primary, Dave Rollo’s name will appear as the only candidate for city council District 4, and David Wolfe Bender’s name will appear as the only candidate for city council District 6.
The District 6 city council race became uncontested, when Bean Appleton withdrew before the Friday, Feb. 10 noon deadline .
At Thursday’s meeting, it was deputy clerk Tressia Martin who summarized upcoming key election dates, instead of the election supervisor. Karen Wheeler’s last day as election supervisor was last Friday, and no new supervisor has yet been named.
The public inspection of the ballots will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Election Central, located at 7th and Madison Streets.
The deadline to register to vote in the municipal primary is April 3, 2023.
Voting locations for municipal elections are assigned by precinct, not by council district. One site can serve as the voting location for precincts from different council districts.
Precinct labels consist of the township name followed by a number. For all but two Bloomington precincts, the precinct labels begin with either “Bloomington” north of 3rd Street or “Perry” south of 3rd Street, because those are the townships that almost wholly contain the city.
The Monroe County election division provides a precinct map as one way to check the precinct for any location in the county.
[The map below was updated on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023 to reflect the fact that Matt Caldie filed his paper work that day to withdraw from the District 5 race.]
