Tag: 2022 election

Dems ask for recount of 4-vote margin in Benton Township board race

A recount in the Benton Township board race has now been requested by the Monroe County Democratic Party.

In the Benton Township board race, where the top three vote getters win election, Democrat Hans Kelson finished fourth, missing third-place by a 4-vote margin. The third-place finisher was Republican Jake Dodds.

Under state election law, a recount request for a township board race takes the form of a petition filed  with the circuit court. The announcement of the recount petition filing came on Wednesday from Monroe County Democratic chair David Henry.

In the same announcement, Henry wrote that the Democratic party is still weighing a possible recount request in the District 62 state house race.

The District 62 race was won by Republican Dave Hall over Democrat Penny Githens with a post-provisional ballot count margin of 40 votes. The 17-day period for a county chair to ask for a recount translates into next Monday, due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

Because Monroe County has the largest population of the three counties covered by District 62, it would fall to the county chair of Monroe County to file for a recount in that race. Continue reading “Dems ask for recount of 4-vote margin in Benton Township board race” →

Meeting set for review of provisional ballots in 2022 general elections: District 62 House race margin could get bigger, smaller, stay the same

On Friday, at one minute after 12 p.m., at the Election Central building at Madison and 7th streets, Monroe County’s three-member election board will convene a meeting to review the provisional ballots cast in the Nov. 8 general election.

Posted notice of Monroe County election board meeting at Election Central at 7th and Madison streets starting at 12:01 p.m. on Friday, 16, 2022.

Election officials have told The B Square that for this year’s general election there are well over 100 provisional ballots. Those are ballots that were set aside on Election Day, if there was some question about a voter’s qualification to vote.

The key question to be considered for each ballot is whether it should be counted in the final, official results of the election.

It’s a routine and regular process, but generally does not attract much interest, let alone press coverage.

This time around, the interest in provisional ballots is higher, because of the narrow margin in the District 62 State House race, between Dave Hall (R) and Penny Githens (D).

The unofficial vote totals, not including provisional ballots, give Hall a 37-vote margin: 12,975 to 12,938.

District 62 includes areas of Brown and Jackson counties, in addition to a swath of Monroe County that excludes most of the city of Bloomington.

In Monroe County, Githens got the majority of votes: 10,608 to 7,893.

After Friday’s provisional ballot review, Hall’s 37-vote margin across District 62 could be a little bigger, or a little smaller, or exactly the same.

According to Monroe County election officials, after Friday’s meeting, any provisional ballots that are accepted will be run through an optical scanner, which will write the results to a removable storage drive, which will then be hooked up to the computer that stores the election results and uploaded.

But that scanning and uploading activity might not take place until next Monday, according to Monroe County election officials. Continue reading “Meeting set for review of provisional ballots in 2022 general elections: District 62 House race margin could get bigger, smaller, stay the same” →

Election notebook: Monroe County early voting picks up pace, still way slower than presidential year

The historical pattern across the county is for midterm elections to generate less voter turnout than elections that are held in presidential years.

In Monroe County, Indiana, that’s the pattern for early in-person voting so far, after almost two week’s worth of early voting.

In 2020, for most days of the in-person early voting period, over 1,000 people stood in line to vote at the old Johnson’s Hardware building (aka Election Central) at 7th and Madison streets.

This year, though the first nine days of voting, the daily total has nudged past 500 just once—this week on Monday. Continue reading “Election notebook: Monroe County early voting picks up pace, still way slower than presidential year” →

Early election notebook: Three days of in-person early voting

Through about 1:30 p.m. on Friday, 863 people had cast an early in-person ballot in Monroe County for the Nov. 8 elections.

Early in-person voting started on Wednesday morning at Monroe County’s election operations center at 3rd and Walnut streets.

For the first week of early voting, from Monroe County election supervisor Karen Wheeler, here are the daily tallies: 319 (Oct. 12); 348 (Oct. 13); 196 (Oct. 14 with 4.5 hours to go). The total for the first three days was probably around 1,000.

With 18 days left during the early-voting period, the current pace would project out to about 7,000 voters. But that pace is expected to increase.

In 2018, when the most recent midterm election was held, a total of 24,589 early in-person and absentee votes were recorded in Monroe County. Continue reading “Early election notebook: Three days of in-person early voting” →

What candidates said in 3 minutes to make their best pitch to Monroe County voters

On Monday evening, several candidates for local and regional office made an appearance at a networking event hosted by the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce (GBCC) at The Mill, a co-working space north of city hall.

Each candidate got a chance to deliver a quick three-minute stump speech.

This B Square roundup is limited to candidates in contested, partisan races where both candidates appeared.

That leaves out school board races, which are non-partisan.

But one takeaway from Monday’s event was the position taken by school board candidates on the Monroe County Community School Corporation ballot referendum. Each of the three MCCSC school board candidates who attended Monday’s event expressed strong support for the levy increase that appears on the ballot. The three who spoke were: Daniel O’Neill (District 3); Ashley Pirani (District 3); and Erin Wyatt (District 1).

If it’s passed, the referendum would set the school referendum levy rate at $0.185 for eight years, which would increase the average residential taxes paid to the schools by about 35 percent, according to the ballot question wording. The ballot language says the additional money will support the retention and attraction of teachers and staff and enhance programs in STEM, the arts, and special education.

The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 8 election is Oct. 11.  Early voting for the Nov. 8 election starts on Oct. 12.

In Monroe County, early voting will take place at the election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets.

The GBCC has set up a website with a roundup of information on candidates.  An additional resource for information about candidates is the The League of Women Voters Vote411 website. Continue reading “What candidates said in 3 minutes to make their best pitch to Monroe County voters” →

Monroe County continues prep for primary elections on May 3, early voting on April 5

Map of all 28 polling locations in Monroe County.

Several agenda items related to the upcoming primary elections on May 3 were dispatched by county commissioners at their regular Wednesday morning meeting.

Commissioners approved a revision to the set of polling locations—there will be 28 instead of 29 polling sites.

So that voters know which of the polling sites they’re supposed to use, commissioners approved a $18,710 agreement with Midwest Presort to send a postcard notifying each household in the county of their assigned voting location for this election.

To raise awareness of the May 3 primary election, commissioners approved a $1,485 agreement with WBWB FM 97 for 30-second radio spots to air between April 4 and April 22.

Finally, commissioners approved a $5,500 contract with Steve’s Roofing & Sheet Metal to install new metal box gutters and downspouts, with caps and flashing, at the election operations building at 3rd and Walnut streets. The work is supposed to address roof leaks at the building. Continue reading “Monroe County continues prep for primary elections on May 3, early voting on April 5” →