If you still have your ballot, please hand-deliver, says Monroe County election official

On Wednesday, Monroe County election board member Carolyn VandeWiel passed along a kind of public service announcement to The Square Beacon:

If you still have your absentee ballot, don’t drop it in the mail.

Please hand-deliver it to Election Central.

Election Central is at the corner of 7th and Madison Streets in downtown Bloomington.

Why hand-deliver it? The ballot has to arrive by noon on Tuesday, June 2. At this point, the easiest way to make sure that happens is to make a field trip to Election Central. Arrival is defined by actual arrival, not the postmark.

There’s a labeled vertical slot on the Election Central door, ready to accept a ballot.

A quick trip by The Square Beacon over to Election Center was highlighted by encounters with a few different public figures.

Spotted on the county courthouse walkway, wearing their “I voted!” stickers, were auditor Cathy Smith and her chief deputy Chris Muench. They were returning from Election Central a couple blocks west of there. Smith is unopposed in the Democratic Party’s primary and there’s not a Republican candidate for auditor on the ballot.

Campaigning in front of Election Central was one of the candidates for circuit court judge, Kara Elaine Krothe. She’s competing with Jeff Kehr for the Democratic Party’s nomination. The winner will face incumbent Republican Judith Benckart. Krothe said about 300 people voted in person the previous day, and Wednesday’s voter traffic was brisker than the day before.

At Election Central, Bloomington city councilmember Jim Sims dropped by to turn in some campaign committee documents. Sims used the same door slot where some voters were already taking the advice to turn in their ballots by hand, instead of hoping the mail would arrive on time.