Monroe County election board reviews problems with accessible ballot system

Questions about an electronic absentee ballot system used by Monroe County voters took up much of Wednesday’s (Oct. 14) special election board meeting.

The discussion ranged from how problems were resolved, to whether the board should have formally approved the system before its use. The issues apparently affected as many as a dozen voters.

The discussion came less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 general election, as early in-person voting reached 3,359 ballots cast through Tuesday, and election officials considered additional staffing to manage lines.

At issue is Enhanced Ballot, which is an online system provided by Enhanced Voting, LLC. It’s available for military and overseas voters, as well as absentee voters who can’t independently mark a paper ballot because of blindness, impaired vision or a physical disability. Indiana election law refers to such a person as a voter with print disabilities.

The Enhanced Ballot software lets eligible voters access and mark their ballots electronically, including through assistive technology such as screen readers. Depending on the authorized return method, voters can return their ballots electronically or print and mail them. The system does not itself tabulate votes.

In Monroe County, as elsewhere in Indiana, absentee ballots returned by email or fax have to be processed by a bipartisan team. The team transfers the voter’s choices onto an optical-scan paper ballot before it can be counted by the county’s voting equipment. Monroe County’s equipment is manufactured by Hart InterCivic.

The questions arose last week when Monroe County clerk Nicole Browne received an email from a member of an absentee voter board warning about problems with the system. Browne told the board on Wednesday that she responded by contacting other county clerks and the Indiana secretary of state’s office.

Among the problems: Required signatures did not appear on ballot affidavits received by the county, even though voters said they had signed them. Election supervisor Kylie Farris said Enhanced Voting had attributed nearly all the reported problems to user errors, with perhaps one or two exceptions that the company said it was able to fix.

Farris said an estimated 12 voters had encountered problems. She said election staff had worked with Enhanced Ballot and contacted affected voters to resolve the problems. In cases involving missing signatures, the county has emailed affidavits for voters to sign and return, Farris said. According to Indiana’s 2026 Voter Registration Guidebook, voters with print disabilities returning ballots electronically must complete an ABS-25 affidavit, which accompanies their ballot.

Browne said at Wednesday morning’s meeting: “To blow this up ... like something nefarious is going on was simply unnecessary at a time where we are trying to get through a better-than-expected turnout election.”

Browne stressed that the number of affected voters was small relative to the county’s 91,488 registered voters. Farris said 601 voters were eligible to use the system, making the 12 reported cases about 2% of that group.

Browne also read aloud an Oct. 13 letter from Jerold Bonnet, who is deputy secretary of state and chief legal counsel. Bonnet’s letter said Enhanced Voting software had been reviewed and approved by the bipartisan co-directors of the Indiana Election Division before the May primary.

The letter said the state was unaware of other similar problems in Indiana counties or states using the service. It also stated that all concerns submitted to Enhanced Voting had been addressed within one business day.

“We would not recommend changing accessible ballot vendors or discontinuing use of the Enhanced Voting application at this time, less than 3 weeks from the General Election,” Bonnet wrote.

Election board member Penny Githens questioned Farris about staff training, missing signatures on ballot affidavits, and whether ballots mailed back without the usual signed return envelopes would remain valid. She said an email forwarded by the Monroe County Democratic Party chair (Chrissie Geels) indicated that some military or overseas voters had mailed their ballots instead of returning them electronically.

Farris responded by saying she and two full-time staff members had received training from Enhanced Voting. For missing signatures, election staff have been emailing voters affidavits to sign and return, Farris said. As for mailed ballots, Farris said the state had authorized that option. Farris said ballots returned by mail are placed in separate envelopes for safekeeping. Ballots completed through Enhanced Ballot are then remade on official paper ballots on Election Day by a bipartisan team before being scanned by the county’s voting equipment.

Githens also questioned whether the election board should have taken a vote to approve the system before the county began using it. County attorney Jeff Cockerill said use of Enhanced Ballot was optional for counties, and he assumed the decision to use it would have been made by the local election board. But he did not know whether the Monroe County election board had actually approved its use.

Browne and Farris said the system had been presented at state conferences as the one that counties were expected to use, rather than as an option requiring local approval. Githens said the state’s contract with Enhanced Voting described the system as being made available to counties, not as mandatory.

Cockerill confirmed that Enhanced Voting’s contract is with the state, which pays for the service. So it’s not something Monroe County’s legal team would have reviewed, he said.

In 2024, Monroe County used a different electronic ballot system, called OmniBallot. Farris asked whether that system had been formally approved by the election board before its use. Browne said she was unaware of any such approval.

Githens said that regardless of how few voters were affected, the board had a responsibility to make sure their votes counted.

The board took no action to change systems.

Early voting turnout, staffing

Farris reported that 3,359 Monroe County voters had cast early in-person ballots through Tuesday (Oct. 13). Tuesday’s turnout of 673 voters was the highest single-day total so far.

The county’s online early voting dashboard tracks daily totals and provides comparisons with previous elections.

Farris said lines at Election Central, in the North Showers building at 501 N. Morton St., have sometimes backed up into the entrance foyer. She planned to consider increasing staffing beginning Thursday, to keep voters moving through the line.

The deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail is Oct. 22.

Nearly 200 high school students recruited

At its Wednesday morning meeting, the election board also approved a resolution appointing poll workers, including students recruited through Indiana’s Hoosier Hall Pass program, which allows 16- and 17-year-olds to serve as paid election workers.

Students must have parental and school approval, meet other eligibility requirements and complete election worker training.

Farris reported that Bloomington High School North had recruited 94 students, compared with 84 from Bloomington High School South. The friendly competition between the two schools has produced 178 prospective workers, with additional students signing up from Edgewood High School, Seven Oaks Classical School, Lighthouse Christian Academy and homeschooling families.

Farris said the combined total of Hoosier Hall Pass workers could easily exceed 200.