Monroe County election board finishes final prep for Tuesday, May 7 primaries

By around 7:30 p.m. on Monday night, all but three of the 29 polling locations for Primary Election Day on May 7 had checked in with Monroe County election division staff at Election Central to confirm they were set for the next day’s voting.

Election Central is the old Johnson’s Hardware building at 7th and Madison streets.

Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 6 p.m.

Officially, it was the Monroe County election board that was checking through the final preparations. Judith Benckart and county clerk Nicole Browne made a quorum of the three-member county board. John Fernandez, the third member of the board, was not present.

Also working on the final election preparations were election division staff, Tammy White, Larime Wilson, and Monroe County election supervisor Kylie Moreland.

Everyone involved was fielding and making calls to the polling sites.

The board had recessed its meeting from last Thursday until 4 p.m. on Monday. The board will gather again around 6 a.m. for the opening of the polls. Polls are open for 12 hours, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Early in-person voting wrapped up at noon on Monday, with an unofficial total of 4,733 people casting a ballot early in person at the election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets.

A handful of people arrived at election operations a few minutes after noon, expecting to vote. They were met with the news from poll workers that the following 12-hour day, Primary Election Day, would be their final chance to vote.

When they vote on Election Day, they’ll most likely cast their ballots at some other polling location than the election operations building. There are just a few precincts that are assigned to the election operations building as a polling site.

Voters who are unsure where they are supposed to vote on Primary Election Day can find that information on the Indiana Voter Portal.

A full-day of rain is currently forecast for the Monroe County area on Tuesday. That could mean that Primary Election Day turnout will be hard pressed to exceed the number of early voters.

The local offices up for election this year are: county auditor; county commissioner District 2; county commissioner District 3, county coroner; three county council at-large positions; county surveyor; county treasurer; and three circuit court judge positions.

Monroe County Democrats have at least one candidate for every open position, but only three races are contested in the party primary. Both county commissioner incumbents face challenges. Incumbent Democrat Julie Thomas is being challenged by Peter Iversen, who is a sitting county councilor. Incumbent Democrat Penny Githens is being challenged by Indiana University law professor Jody Madeira, and former Bloomington city councilmember Steve Volan.

Four Democrats are vying for the three nominations as county councilor: incumbents Trent Deckard and Cheryl Munson; and newcomers Matt Caldie and David Henry.

There are only two candidates in the Monroe County Republican Party’s primary, both vying for the same county commissioner seat, which is currently represented by Democrat Penny Githens. The two candidates for the GOP are Joe Van Deventer and Paul White, Sr.