Election board roundup: Bloomington municipal election cost $472K, talk on vote center timeline
Thursday’s meeting of the Monroe County election board included several updates and briefings, as the board looks ahead to the challenges of the 2024 election cycle.
Primary election day falls on May 7 this year. That means early in-person voting starts April 9, which is just 95 days away.
Meeting highlights included a breakdown of 2023 election costs from county election supervisor Ryan Herndon.
The share charged to Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) for its referendum on Nov. 7 was $94,951.85.
The city of Bloomington was billed $198,127.39 for the primary election and $273,676.49 for the Nov. 7 municipal election. That made Bloomington’s total $471,803.88.
The total cost for elections in 2023 was $566,755.73
Other topics touched on at Thursday’s meeting included: notices given to two Bloomington city council candidates about possible campaign finance violations; an after-action report on polling locations used in the 2023 elections; and the board’s expectations for the completion of the vote center study committee’s work.
Vote center study committee
The 11-member voter center study committee for Monroe County met for the first time in early December.
The second meeting was originally set for Jan. 3, but that changed based on a room scheduling conflict. The second meeting is now set for a week later, on Jan. 10, in Conference Room 100B, in the county’s side of the Showers Building on Morton Street.
The wording of election board’s resolution establishing the vote center study committee requires an every-other-week meeting schedule.
Vote centers are different from the kind of precinct-based polling locations currently used by Monroe County. For a precinct-based polling site, only voters from specified precincts can cast a ballot there.
Vote centers are polling places where a voter who is registered in any precinct can cast a ballot.
The committee’s job is to put together a vote center plan, with the number and locations for the voter centers to be used in Monroe County. That plan would need a unanimous vote by the three-member county election board, in order to be adopted.
Deputy clerk Kylie Moreland provides staff support for the vote center study committee. So on Thursday, she briefed the board on the committee’s first meeting.
Moreland also relayed a question from committee members to the board about the expected timeframe for delivery of their vote center plan.
Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne, who serves in that capacity on the three-member board, said her own expectation was that the committee’s vote center plan would be submitted by the end of 2024. She put it like this: “If we’re still talking about this, this time next year. I think that that’s a bit extensive.”
For her part, the Republican Party’s appointee to the board, Judith Benckart, said her expectation was just that the committee would give the board regular updates on its progress. She figured the work of the committee could last through the end of 2025. “If we try to do it [in 2024], I think it’s going to just be thrown together—and be difficult to really have it up and running, and let everybody feel comfortable with any decision we make.”
In order to adopt vote centers, a unanimous vote of the three-member board is required. When the Monroe County election board considered adoption of vote centers in 2011, the vote failed, with dissent from the Republican Party’s appointee to the board at the time.
It was in part due to the previous work that had been done on the topic, that led Browne to think that the work could be completed by the end of 2024.
Where Benckart and Browne agreed was on the idea that the vote centers, if adopted, should be up and running in time for the 2026 elections. There are no regular elections of any kind scheduled for 2025.
Benckart and Browne agreed that the topic of the board’s expectations for the timing of the committee’s work should be put on the board’s February meeting agenda.
At that point in the meeting, John Fernandez, the new Democratic Party appointee to the board had not yet joined, which he did a short time later on Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform. The Monroe County government switched to Teams from Zoom at the start of the year.
After-action report on 2023 municipal elections
Bob White, who is co-owner of B&L IT Services, gave the board a report on some issues that had been identified in connection with polling places for the 2023 municipal elections. B&L is a contractor the county has used for logistics and technical support in connection with elections since 2013.
At Binford Elementary, the voting operation was set up right underneath an air conditioner vent, and folks got cold, White said. So he’s looking at a possible reconfiguration to avoid the draft from the vent.
Improving the signage directing people to the exact spot for voting at the polling location was identified as important for a few polling sites: Indiana Memorial Union; Grandview Elementary, and Bloomington High School South.
About an identified issue with the handicap accessible ramp at Bloomington South, White told the board that the ramp itself is not as bad as it looks.
White described the ramp in detail. According to White, from the handicap parking spot to the first ramp, it’s 33 feet. The first ramp is 20 feet long, which leads to a five-foot landing. Then there’s another 20-foot ramp to the top. From there it’s 26 feet to Door 19. From inside Door 19 to the White Gym, where the polls are set up it’s 65 feet.
February: Campaign finance issues
At Thursday’s meeting, election supervisor Ryan Herndon, told the board that letters would be sent to two Bloomington city council candidates in the 2023 election notifying them of the board’s consideration of potential campaign finance violations. That consideration will take place at the board’s February meeting.
For at-large Bloomington city council candidate Isak Asare, there are two issues—a late CFA-4 filing and a missing CFA-11. The CFA-4 is the more familiar report of campaign contributions and expenses. The CFA-11 is for “large contributions” which is required for contributions of $1,000 or more, made after the normal pre-election filing deadline, but before the election. It looks like Asare should have filed a CFA-11 for a $1,000 contribution made by then-Bloomington mayor John Hamilton.
It also looks like a missing CFA-11 could be the issue for at-large council candidate Steve Volan. He received a $2,000 contribution from the Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 136 within the timeframe that would have required the filing of a CFA-11. But the county’s website does not show a CFA-11 filing for Volan.
Asare prevailed as the top vote-getter in the May primary election. Volan came sixth in a field of seven, where the top three won the Democratic Party’s nomination.
