Election 2024: Early in-person voting for Monroe County gets off to legally required loud start

In-person early voting for the Nov. 5 election has started in Monroe County, Indiana.

At 8 a.m. sharp on Tuesday, county clerk Nicole Browne opened the door at the election operations center at 3rd and Walnut streets in downtown Bloomington and proclaimed: “Hear ye, hear ye, the polls are now open!”

Poll-opening audio: Oct. 8, 2024

The announcement is not just for fun. It’s a requirement of state election law, which says the announcement about the start of voting must be made “in a loud tone of voice” to “the people outside the polls.”

About 25 people were in line with two minutes to go until the polls opened. The temperature was a brisk 41 F degrees.

[Updated at 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 8.  According to Monroe County election supervisor Kylie Farris, the total in-person voter count on Oct. 8, 2024, the first day of early in-person voting was 1,093. In 2020 the first-day total was 899. In 2016, the first-day total was 924.]

First in line was David Hiestand—he told The B Square he was also first in line to vote early in 2020.

Voters were taking around 10 minutes to vote, from the time they went through the door until they emerged with their “I voted” stickers.

One wrinkle this year applies to newly registered voters or people who updated their registration since July 1. A new law enacted this year requires some extra documentation for those voters—but only for some of them.

If they registered to vote, and the state of Indiana was able to match the information they gave when registering—either a social security number or driver license record—to the same number, name and date of birth on existing government records, that is supposed to satisfy the new requirement. That is, no extra documents are required when voting.

But if the state is not able to match up existing government records with newly registered voter’s information, when the voter goes to cast a ballot, they can be asked for additional documentation.

Documents that can satisfy the additional requirement include: a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or government document that shows the voter’s name and address as the same that appears in their voter registration record.

Here are the early voting hours for the next four weeks in Monroe County: