Early voting hours in Monroe County uncertain as council delays funding decision

Early in-person voting for this year’s primary elections starts April 7. But the hourly schedule for Monroe County’s early voting is still not settled. That’s because the funding plan to cover staffing for the county’s customary hours is not yet in place.

That uncertainty is unfolding in the context of a current project to remodel space in the North Showers building, to make a home there for election operations.

In a nutshell, Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne says that the election division needs $242,781 more funding than exists in the 2026 budget to staff elections—or else the 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekday schedule that is familiar to Monroe County voters, will be cut by two hours and run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The lack of a definite hourly schedule for early voting was the outcome of the county council’s meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 27), when councilors rejected requests from the clerk’s office for two smaller extra appropriations and put off action on a larger additional appropriation request, meant to cover staffing costs for primary and general elections.

It was election supervisor Kylie Farris, appearing on behalf of the elected county clerk Nicole Browne, who brought the three separate additional appropriation requests to the council.

On Tuesday, councilors postponed the $242,781 extra appropriation for poll workers and early voting staffing. Their vote was unanimous. If they had voted it up or down, that would have set the stage for election board members at their meeting next Thursday (Feb. 5), to determine early voting hours and polling site plans for the May 5 primary—as well as for the general election in November.

Postponement meant that election board members will likely spend their time at next Thursday’s meeting trying to make sure that they have all the information that councilors said on Tuesday they wanted to see when they consider the request for an extra quarter million dollars at their next regular meeting on Feb. 10.

The two smaller requests were an extra $600 in office supplies and $4,625 more for printing and travel. The council unanimously rejected those requests based on the fact that just four weeks into the year, no money had been spent out of the budget lines for those purposes yet and that the relatively small amounts could be covered with transfers from other lines.

More money to staff customary hours, locations

The money requested in the third extra appropriation totalling $242,781 would pay poll workers on Election Day, early voting workers, and overtime for clerk’s staff during election periods.

Farris framed the appropriation as the funding needed to preserve Monroe County’s traditional early voting schedule and a 29-location polling location footprint in 2026, instead of 21 locations. Cuts made last year during the 2026 budget adoption process meant that the money for the hourly schedule and the number of locations is not in the adopted budget for 2026, according to Farris.

Farris said that Monroe County voters are accustomed to voting from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and that those 10 hours would have to be reduced to eight, without an additional appropriation. Under Indiana state law, early voting hours on each of the two Saturdays ahead of Election Day cannot be reduced to less than seven hours, Farris said.

Farris stressed that she had already reduced the number of workers per day compared to the 2024 general election, especially in the first two weeks of early voting.

Farris said that Monroe County operated with 29 polling locations in the 2024 election, which was the most recent one—no elections took place in 2025. For 2026, Farris said, she is currently looking at reducing that to 22, and now likely 21, because one location has declined to serve again.

It was councilor Peter Iversen who made the motion to put off a vote on the extra appropriation to staff the elections. Iversen is one of the two county council liaisons to the clerk’s office—the other is David Henry.

Iversen said putting off the vote until Feb. 10 timing would allow county councilors to watch next week’s election board meeting to see how the three-member election board deliberates on the issue. Browne serves on the board as the elected county clerk. The Republican Party’s appointee, and currently chair of the board is Danny Shields; the Democratic Party’s appointee is Penny Githens.

The other county council liaison to the clerk’s office, David Henry, flagged some discrepancies between the detailed line‑by‑line numbers the clerk’s office shared informally in October last year and the figures in Tuesday’s formal request. Some sub‑lines—for different categories of absentee and early‑voting workers—appeared higher to Henry than what had been discussed previously.

Henry asked that, by Feb. 10, the clerk’s office provide clear, reconciled numbers. About the figures, Henry said, “one of them looks right, two don’t.” Henry wanted the election staff to square up the numbers, putting it like this: “I think we need to tidy that up.”

Election board member Penny Githens, attending Tuesday’s meeting virtually, put some distance between herself and the numbers that Farris was presenting. Githens said that while the board was aware Farris would be appearing before the council, “we did not vote on these precise numbers that are being brought before you tonight.”

Farris told councilors that the election board normally would have approved polling locations and early voting hours at its January meeting. The fact that it did not, because board members wanted to wait until the extra appropriation was approved, means that the board is already “a month behind,” Farris said.

Farris said that without more appropriations now—the election board will be confronted with a tough choice—cut early voting hours and possibly reduce polling locations, or move ahead with a more robust plan in the hope that the council later fills the budget gap.

Office relocation adds pressure ahead of April 7 start

A change in election logistics this year is already a source of additional stress for election division staff. Election operations and voter registration will move—from the now-demolished former NAPA Auto Parts store at the site of the convention center expansion and Election Central in the old Johnson’s Hardware building—to the North Showers building on Morton Street.

The move out of Election Central, at Madison and 7th Streets, for voter registration will now take place earlier than planned, in a two-phased operation. The earlier move, first to a temporary location, is due to a water heater failure at the building, which means the probation department is moving into the voter registration space at Election Central.

One of the smaller requested appropriations by Farris, which was voted down by the council on Tuesday, was tied to additional printing and mailing costs for publicity about the move. Strauser Construction is doing the renovation work to configure the space in North Showers for voter registration and early voting. Strauser’s contract is worth $653,600.

The work to convert early voting space is supposed to be done in time for the April 7 start. The work to convert the North Showers space to for voter registration work is not supposed to be finished until after the primary elections.