Election notebook: Ballot inspections, Salt Creek vacancy






Monday was the legally mandated chance for the public to inspect proofs of ballots that will be used in Monroe County’s upcoming Nov. 7 municipal elections.
Ballots were on display from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Election Central (7th and Madison streets).
The ballots had been laid out for inspection on a long table by the county’s election division staff, led by election supervisor Ryan Herndon.
Arriving shortly after 9 a.m. to inspect the ballots were a couple of the Democratic Party nominees for Bloomington city offices—Nicole Bolden and Sydney Zulich.
Seeking her third four-year term, Bolden is unopposed on the ballot for city clerk. Zulich is seeking her first four-year term as the District 6 Bloomington city council representative.
All the Democratic Party nominees on the ballot are unopposed, except for Hopi Stosberg, who is competing with Republican Brett Heinisch to represent District 3 on the Bloomington city council.
Based on the sign-in sheet at Election Central, Stosberg and Heinisch dropped by to inspect ballots later in the day. Isabel Piedmont-Smith, who is the Democratic Party’s nominee for District 1 city council, also dropped by to inspect ballots later in the day.
Rounding out Bloomington’s municipal ballot are: Kate Rosenbarger (District 2); Dave Rollo (District 4); Shruti Rana (District 5); Isak Asare, Andy Ruff, and Matt Flaherty (city council at-large candidates); and Kerry Thomson (mayor).
The races for Ellettsville town offices are all uncontested for Republican Party nominees: Noelle Conyer (clerk/treasurer); Trevor Sager (Ward 1); William Ellis (Ward 2); and Scott Oldham (Ward 3).
The Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) referendum question appears just on ballots for precincts inside that school district.
In other election-related news, related to the 2022 election for the Salt Creek township board, Monroe County commissioners voted at their regular Wednesday morning to select Democrat Guy Cunningham as the holdover board member for the start of the 2023 term.
Here’s the background. Just two candidates competed in the 2022 election for the Salt Creek township board, which is supposed to be a pick-up-to-three type contest. Democrats Sean Hall and Joseph Hickman were elected. Choosing not to run again were Cunningham and Ken Steve Hogan, who is former Monroe County Republican Party chair.
Under one state election law, Monroe County commissioners could have selected either Cunningham or Hogan to hold over in office to round out the three-member Salt Creek township board—if they acted by Dec. 31, 2022. But another state law lets the commissioners retain that appointment authority, even if they miss that deadline.
The choice of Cunningham was based on the fact that county commissioner Penny Githens reported that Salt Creek trustee Joan Hall had reached out to Hogan, who indicated he was not interested in serving.
Githens said that after the commissioners settle on Cunningham, they will reach out to him to see if he is willing to step again into the role of township board member.
A longshot legal action that Joe Davis has filed would, if it proves successful, upend the regular ballot printing schedule.
The lawsuit concerns Davis’s effort to appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as a Bloomington mayoral candidate. He fell 14 short of the 352 signatures he had to collect.
There’s not a lot to report on the lawsuit at this point—as of Wednesday afternoon (Sept. 13), a special judge has not yet been selected. [Updated Sept. 13, 2023 even later in the afternoon: The case has been assigned to Lucas Rudisill, a magistrate judge out of Greene County.]