Election board: Former NAPA building to be used for early, in-person voting in Monroe County

View looking southwest from the top of the 4th Street parking garage. In the foreground is the former NAPA building.

NAPA building interior.

B Square file photo of early voting for the 2020 general election at Election Central.

B Square file photo of Election Central in the old Johnson Hardware building on the corner of 7th and Madison streets.

In 2022, Monroe County’s in-person early voting will take place at the former NAPA building on the southwest corner of 3rd and Walnut streets in downtown Bloomington. That’s for the the primary and general elections alike.

There’s still a chance that some early in-person ballots could also be cast at Election Central, in the old Johnson Hardware building at 7th and Madison streets. But that will depend on recruitment of enough election workers to staff both locations.

The use of the NAPA building as an in-person early voting location was approved by a unanimous vote of the county’s three-person election board at its Thursday session.

For the final two weeks of the four-week early voting period, Election Central could be added as an in-person location, but only if an adequate number of election workers can be recruited.

Monroe County election supervisor Karen Wheeler called on potential poll workers to step up. Some past workers are now in their upper 80s or over 90 years old, she said. In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wheeler does not feel comfortable asking them to work this year.

For basic background on pay and election worker requirements, the county election division has set up a webpage: web page for poll workers. The contact phone number for potential election workers is 812-349-2690. Email messages can be sent to election [at] co.monroe.in.us Continue reading “Election board: Former NAPA building to be used for early, in-person voting in Monroe County” →

County clerk to pitch more space for elections division, election board welcomes Rana as new Dem appointee

Shruti Rana on screen at the Aug. 5, 2021 board of election meeting.

In this file photo from the third week of January 2020, Monroe County’s Election Central space is shown as it undergoes renovation.

The old Johnson Hardware building at 7th and Madison streets (aka Election Central).

At Thursday’s regular meeting of Monroe County’s election board, one of the highlights was a briefing from county clerk Nicole Browne on an upcoming conversation she’s requested with Monroe County’s three county commissioners.

The idea that Browne will be pitching to commissioners at next week’s Aug. 11 work session is one with a history stretching back over a half decade—more room for the elections division.

The elections division currently shares space with the probation department in the old Johnson Hardware building at Madison and 7th streets.

Based on the history of the topic, commissioners won’t be eager to allocate more space to the election division. They approved the funds for a renovation to the building in early 2020 that was, in part, supposed to relieve some of the need for additional space.

Joining her first meeting of the three-member election board on Thursday was Shruti Rana, who was picked to succeed Carolyn VandeWiel as the Democratic Party appointee. The board consists of a Democrat, a Republican (Hal Turner), and the current county clerk.

Continue reading “County clerk to pitch more space for elections division, election board welcomes Rana as new Dem appointee” →

Long-time election worker retires: “We’re here for one thing. And that’s to make a good election.”

Jack Davis, wearing his Election Day shirt and a lei, addresses the group assembled to honor his retirement on Thursday.

From left: Jack Davis and Hal Turner. Davis is receiving the 3-D printed toilet paper remembrance that Turner fabricated for him.

Jack Davis.

3-D printed remembrance on the occasion of Jack Davis’s retirement.

Monroe County’s clerk, Nicole Browne, told The B Square on Thursday afternoon: “There is no replacing a Jack. He is one-of-a-kind. He is amazing. And I will miss him every single day. Every single day.”

Browne was talking about Jack Davis, a county employee whose retirement was marked Thursday at a reception held by his colleagues at Election Central, where he has worked for the election division.

Thursday was the six-year anniversary of Davis’s most recent span of service in local government—he started that half-dozen year stretch on the same day as county election supervisor Karen Wheeler.

But the octogenarian’s history of work for local government can be traced back to way earlier. Continue reading “Long-time election worker retires: “We’re here for one thing. And that’s to make a good election.”” →

Check your voter registration: Election board reviews registration postcard confirmations, no fresh news on registration fraud allegation

At its meeting last Thursday, Monroe County’s three-person election board got an update on the state election division’s effort to update voter registration rolls, with a postcard mailing.

Registered voters should have received a postcard mailing in late May, confirming their registration to vote at the address where the postcard was delivered. Registration can also be confirmed online. [It’s the “Check Voting Status” option.]

The registration confirmation postcards are part of the state’s process for reducing outdated voter records. For people who receive an accurate card with their name on it, no action is requested.

Election officials want people who received a postcard with a name they don’t recognize to write “Return to Sender” on the card and put it in a mailbox.

That doesn’t cancel anyone’s voter registration, but it does activate the second step in a process the state uses to try to keep voter rolls updated. Continue reading “Check your voter registration: Election board reviews registration postcard confirmations, no fresh news on registration fraud allegation” →

Bill that would regulate Indiana voting systems to ensure one-person-one-vote not seen as essential this session

As the Indiana General Assembly passes its halfway mark, several bills have not met their required milestones to get further consideration.

One of them was HB 1288, which deals with election security. It was sponsored by Representative Ryan Lauer, a Republican whose District 59 covers most of Bartholomew County, including the city of Columbus.

The bill got a mention at an early-February meeting of Monroe County’s election board, as part of county clerk Nicole Browne’s rundown of pending legislation. It got a second look, because of its requirement that voting systems store votes “as a whole number, without the use of decimals or fractions.”

Browne told her two colleagues on the three-person board: “I don’t want anybody to be alarmed in Monroe County. We have never reported out our votes in anything but whole numbers.” Browne ventured, “So something’s going on in some other county. And I would not take that as a fire alarm in Monroe County.”

According to Lauer, the motivation behind the bill was not based on an attested problem with vote total reporting in any of Indiana’s counties. Continue reading “Bill that would regulate Indiana voting systems to ensure one-person-one-vote not seen as essential this session” →

Electioneering case at polls leaves board wondering: Who was that masked man?

Not a part of Monroe County’s election board meeting on Thursday was the expected hearing for a voter who is said to have displayed campaign material for his preferred candidate inside the polls during early voting last October.

File photo from early voting in October 2020.

The complaint that was filed with the board said he was wearing a COVID-19 mask, with the name of his preferred presidential candidate, reportedly Donald Trump. The voter refused to swap to a different mask or turn his own inside out.

He was still allowed to cast a ballot, because state law does not allow election officials to prevent someone from voting.

But the election board does not know who the man is. Continue reading “Electioneering case at polls leaves board wondering: Who was that masked man?” →

Election board reviews balloting, tees up hearings on electioneering charge, fine for late finance form

At its meeting on Thursday, Monroe County’s election board set its next meeting, on Feb. 4, as the time when it will hear charges of electioneering at the polls during early voting.

Screen shot of Jan. 7, 2021 Monroe County election board meeting. Election supervisor Karen Wheeler is holding up a list of incomplete registrations that she wants board members to sign.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, the board reviewed candidates with delinquent campaign finance forms.

Thursday’s board meeting included a report on a survey of people who worked the polls for the 2020 elections. The survey showed mostly positive results.

The elections also heard a review during public commentary from a voter’s perspective, given by longtime poll workers Marge and Jim Faber.

Marge Faber told the board, “As a voter, I want to tell you, that was the most fantastic voting experience I’ve ever had.” She added, “And given my age, that means over 60 years worth of voting, because I’ve never missed an election.”

After suggesting some additional signage for the Arlington Elementary School location, Faber wrapped up, saying, “Otherwise, it was fantastic. I should have written you a note earlier, and I forgot.” Thursday’s board meeting marked Faber’s 88th birthday.

At Thursday’s meeting, the chairship of the three-member board transitioned from one party’s appointee to the other, in a longstanding mutually-agreed tradition. Republican Party appointee Hal Turner, who chaired the board in 2020, passed the virtual gavel to Democratic Party appointee Carolyn VandeWiele. The third member of the board is the Monroe County clerk, who is currently Nicole Browne.

In his introductory remarks, Turner commented on the previous day’s events in Washington D.C. when pro-Trump rioters had stormed the Capitol.

“Yesterday, we saw not just an illegal act by 52 people who invaded the Capitol building, but also a gross insult to our democracy and the republic that makes our form of democracy possible,” Turner said.

Turner continued, “But the sanctity of the Constitution ultimately prevailed. And good women and men were not deterred from their sacred constitutional obligations. To quote our Indiana senator Todd Young, on the steps of the Capitol yesterday, ‘When it comes to the law, our opinions don’t matter. The law matters. I took an oath under God.’”
Continue reading “Election board reviews balloting, tees up hearings on electioneering charge, fine for late finance form” →

Monroe County provisional ballots resolved, poll worker calls election staff “rock stars”

This was three-member county election board on Friday, Nov. 13, 2020, resolving provisional ballots cast on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020. From left: Carolyn VandeWiele (Democrat), Hal Turner (Republican) and Monroe County’s clerk, Nicole Browne. (Screenshot from Zoom conference call.)

Election results were ready in Monroe County on election night on Tuesday, Nov. 3, around 11 p.m.

Those initial results will now get altered, possibly by as much as 15 votes either way, which won’t be enough to change the outcome of any races.

The tweak to the results comes from the provisional ballots that got resolved on Friday by the county’s three-member bipartisan election aboard.

If there’s any kind of dispute or conflict at the polls, the law gives a voter the chance to cast a provisional ballot, which then gets reviewed by the three-member bi-partisan election board.

On Friday, the board reviewed 110 provisional ballots. By The Square Beacon’s count, 15 of them got accepted, each by separate unanimous vote of the board. Continue reading “Monroe County provisional ballots resolved, poll worker calls election staff “rock stars”” →

Monroe County election board mulls investigation of unlawful electioneering at polls by voter wearing COVID-19 mask with candidate’s name

Monroe County’s election board could eventually wind up conducting an investigation of unlawful electioneering by a voter at the early in-person polls.

The voter has been described as wearing a COVID-19 mask with a candidate’s name printed on it, inside the polling location at Election Central, while voting was taking place. The voter, who was allowed to cast a ballot, refused to swap to a different mask or turn his own inside out.

That appears to be a violation of Indiana’s state election law, which says that electioneering is not allowed inside a polling place.

The definition of electioneering includes “expressing support or opposition to any candidate” and “wearing or displaying an article of clothing, sign, button, or placard that states the name of any political party or includes the name, picture, photograph, or other likeness of any currently elected federal, state, county, or local official.” [IC 3-14-3-16]

It was an election worker who gave the county election board a report on the matter at its Monday morning meeting, which was held to square away any remaining issues before Election Day.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the voter could wind up charged with committing a Class A misdemeanor, according to Matthew Kochevar, who is co-general counsel for the Indiana Election Division.

The punishment for a Class A misdemeanor is up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

To get to an outcome involving jail time and a fine, the county election board could investigate the electioneering allegation at a public meeting of the board under[ IC 3-6-5-31], Kochevar wrote in an emailed message to The Square Beacon. The election board could then vote to forward the matter to the county prosecutor under [IC 3-6-5-32], as a violation of the electioneering statute, Kochevar said.

According to a statement issued by Monroe County election board member Carolyn VandeWiele late Monday, she spoke to the Monroe County prosecutor’s office and confirmed: “They will prosecute any offenses that we bring before them.” Continue reading “Monroe County election board mulls investigation of unlawful electioneering at polls by voter wearing COVID-19 mask with candidate’s name” →

Accessible polling sites in a pandemic: Monroe County election board grapples with decisions

Monroe County election board chair Hal Turner holds a knob turner that he 3D-printed in connection with the election board’s effort to improve accessibility of polling sites.

Genesis Church concrete apron. Where the concrete apron meets the wall in the left of the frame gives a good idea of the steepness of the slope that has the Monroe County election board concerned about accessibility of the site as a polling location.

By next Tuesday, Monroe County’s three-member election board needs to decide the final locations of polling sites for the Nov. 3 general election.

One of the sites has a steep concrete slope leading to an entrance. Board members are trying to figure out how to make it accessible for people who use wheelchairs to get around.

Another key consideration for poll site selection is the amount of space available for creating adequate distance between voters, to reduce chances of spreading the COVID-19 virus.

At the last couple Tuesday afternoon election board meetings, which are planned weekly until further notice, board members have discussed site selection issues.

They also reviewed the precautions that being taken to protect voters and poll workers from spread of COVID-19 at the polls. That’s a consideration for some people who might be considering taking a turn as a poll worker this year. Continue reading “Accessible polling sites in a pandemic: Monroe County election board grapples with decisions” →