Final prep for primary voting in Monroe County includes split vote on poll worker training packet

April 7 marks the start of early voting for this year’s May 5 primary elections, which means the deadline for registering to vote is April 6.

As that date gets closer, on Friday (March 20) Monroe County’s election board completed some of the final housekeeping to get ready for voters to cast their ballots. On Friday’s agenda was the approval of poll-worker training materials, which passed on a split vote.

The election board had already voted on the locations of 28 different polling locations throughout the county for Election Day—but those locations likely won’t get final approval until next week. The polling locations for May 5, which will be different for many voters compared to past years, are expected to appear on the March 26 meeting agenda for county commissioners.

Once those locations are given final approval by the commissioners, a postcard mailing will be sent to voters alerting them to their correct polling location. The state of Indiana also maintains an online lookup service where voters can find their correct polling location on Election Day.

In addition to some countywide races there are several contested races in this year’s primaries on the township level.

At Friday’s meeting, Monroe County election supervisor Kylie Farris told election board members that the first set of absentee ballots had already been sent out—on Monday (March 16) this week. Farris told The B Square about 130 ballots were mailed on Monday, with smaller numbers each day for the rest of the week for a total of under 200 for the week, she said. Four years ago, in the 2022 primaries, the total number of voters who cast an absentee ballot in Monroe County was around 1,000.

As part of their business on Friday’s agenda, Monroe County’s election board signed off on updated poll‑worker training materials, but only after the Democratic Party’s appointee to the board, Penny Githens, pressed for a clearer, written requirement that emergency procedures actually be reviewed with poll workers.

Farris said those site-specific procedures are included in site‑specific binders given to inspectors and covered orally when materials are picked up. But Githens objected that the inspector checklist itself was silent on that point.

The sharpest exchange unfolded like this:

Githens: It’s not on their checklist of things to do, and it should be.

Farris: Again, that’s an item that we go over when they pick up the materials, so.

Githens: It should be on the checklist—and I don’t understand why you’re so opposed to it.

The item was added to the checklist.

The board was split over how much detail about polling‑place safety and emergency procedures should be attached to the resolution on adoption of the training materials.

On a 2–1 vote, members agreed to strike the exhibits, leaving the main training packet in place, but dropping some supporting materials that had raised safety and election‑integrity concerns. Githens voted no, saying she thought at least some of that material should be easily available to the public.