Key Monroe County election positions filled, Indiana Attorney General advice settles residency question
The positions of Monroe County chief deputy clerk and county election supervisor, which have a history of vacancies, have been filled.
In a news release issued on Feb. 12, Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne announced the hire of Laura Wert as chief deputy clerk, and Kylie Moreland as the county election supervisor.
After the announcement, questions were raised by the county’s legal department, about a potential residency requirement for the two positions. Wert lives in Brown County and Moreland lives in Greene County.
But guidance from the Indiana Attorney General’s office, which was received on Thursday this week, has put the matter to rest. According to county attorney Molly Turner-King, the AG’s advice “alleviates any concern from County Legal regarding these two positions.”
Moreland started work in the county’s election division as a deputy clerk in 2023. She is the staff member who has supported the work of the vote center study committee, since it was established last year.
Wert has previously worked for Brown County government in the clerk’s office and the human resources department.
In Browne’s news release, she wrote: “I am excited for everyone to get to know these two brilliant women and witness what I have been privileged to see as they navigate their new roles.”
The job posting for the election supervisor position stated in the qualifications section: “Must be a Monroe County resident.”
Turner-King told The B Square that when she saw the paperwork come through for the two hires, in her role as legal support for the employee services department, she wondered about a possible legal requirement for residency. Her search of the Lexis-Nexis database turned up a half-century-old attorney general opinion from 1970 that says deputy clerks have to meet the same residency requirement as the elected clerk.
When the B Square reached out to Browne about the 1970 opinion, she referred The B Square to Matthew Kochevar, who is co-counsel for the Indiana Election Division. Reached by phone, Kochevar confirmed that the advice he had previously given Browne was that there is no statutory requirement that deputy clerks satisfy the same residency requirement as clerks.
As for the 1970 AG opinion, Kochevar said a question should be put to the current AG: Does the AG’s office consider the old opinion to still be valid?
Browne also forwarded The B Square’s question to the other co-counsel for the Indiana Election Division, J. Bradley King. King’s response to Browne was a kind of foreshadowing of the current AG’s advice.
In his analysis, King also wrote about the status of AG opinions generally, saying that they are “deserving of thoughtful consideration and respect, but is in no way legally binding on any individual or group.”
In the case of the old opinion unearthed by Turner-King, the current AG’s office wrote that deputy clerks are not considered “officers.” According to the AG’s office, under current state law, an appointed deputy of a political subdivision (which includes counties) “is considered an employee of the political subdivision performing ministerial functions on behalf of an officer and is not required to take the oath…”
The bottom line is that deputy clerks don’t have to satisfy the same residency requirements as the actual elected clerk, according to the AG’s office.
The response from the AG’s office to The B Square was essentially the same one it gave to the county legal department, which had asked its own question.
The next meeting of the Monroe County election board is set for March 7. Early in-person voting for the May 7 primary elections starts April 9, the day after the total solar eclipse. The last day to register to vote in the May 7 primary is April 8.
