At a Wednesday evening meeting, held at Ellettsville’s town hall, four members of Monroe County’s 11-strong vote center study committee hosted a public meeting.

They wanted to hear feedback on the concept of converting the county’s voting locations to polling places where any registered voter can cast a ballot.

Monroe County is currently one of just 28 counties, out of 92 in the state of Indiana, that still use polling locations that are defined just for specific precincts.

Monroe County has 82 precincts, but most polling locations serve more than one precinct. That translates into around 29 polling locations in Monroe County.

The committee’s job is to make a recommendation on vote centers to the three-member county election board. A unanimous vote by the election board would be required, in order to enact vote centers in the county.

At most a dozen people attended Wednesday’s meeting, many of whom are connected to the local political scene.

Attendees did not seem opposed to the idea of converting to vote centers, but some had concerns about the potential for increased waiting times that could arise from a reduction in the number of polling locations.

They also wanted county election officials to make sure that there is enough publicity about the change, before it takes place.

One big takeaway from Wednesday’s meeting is that decision makers don’t expect that voter turnout would necessarily increase due to vote centers—but convenience for those who do choose to vote would be improved. Some cost savings are expected from the change.

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