- All right, we're gonna go ahead and call to order today's meeting of the election board.
- The beginning of this meeting, just for the record, is the second public hearing on the
- vote center plan.
- So in keeping with that, we want to begin with any additional public comment or presentations
- related to the plan.
- And then once we get through the public hearing phase, we can go to the board for further
- consideration on how we're gonna move forward.
- So with that, I don't know if there's a representative of the vote center committee that will want
- to make any opening comments.
- And we have a sign in sheet for anybody who wants to speak that we ask you to fill that
- out and then identify yourself at the podium for the record.
- Good evening.
- Thank you for the chance to be here.
- My name is Ami Gandhi and I've served as a nonpartisan member on the vote center study
- committee.
- I also in my day job am a voting rights attorney with a nonpartisan organization called Chicago
- Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights just to set forth for everyone my colleagues and I
- did submit a written public comment in advance of this hearing explaining our perspective
- that adopting the proposed vote center plan would be a positive step forward for fairness
- and access to voters.
- As you asked at the outset of this hearing about any remarks from the committee, let
- me stick to that perspective for the time being and happy to take any questions.
- I know we're all eager to hear first and foremost from voters themselves about their perspective
- so I won't belabor anything, but I wanted to share a little bit of background which
- was also discussed at previous election board meetings and the previous vote center related
- hearing in our work as a vote center study committee that was bipartisan in nature.
- We heard from voters, we heard from community members, I'm a Monroe County voter myself,
- and we heard a lot of stories of confusion that voters had about determining where is
- my polling place, how can I exercise my right to vote, and that's particularly in some communities
- where if later in the day because of someone's constraints that are on them, long work hours
- or long class hours or a child care or health care situation, if there's very limited time
- to go out there and vote in person and then having location confusion on top of that,
- it can lead to and it has led to unfortunately in Monroe County voters being turned away.
- If it's late in the day by the time they realize they would have had to go to a different assigned
- polling place in order to be able to exercise their right to vote.
- And after hearing about these experiences of confusion and voters being turned away, that
- has really made an impact on the vote center study committee's work and analysis and that
- analysis is available in the proposed vote center plan.
- And if Monroe County moves to this plan and changes its model, there will be a lot of
- communication required with voters and frankly that's the case whether the election system
- stays the same or changes because there's a lot of confusion out there.
- When most of the counties in Indiana have already changed to a vote center model that
- lack of conformity can be quite confusing for voters including those who have moved
- from other parts of the state even from a neighboring county for example.
- And another thing last of all that I wanted to highlight about the proposed vote center
- plan is the safeguards that are envisioned in there.
- That's something that counties can do to make it tailored for its own community not having
- to follow an exact blueprint from other counties but being able to tailor to the needs and
- the constraints and the other factors for a particular community.
- So for example the proposed vote center plan includes safeguards so that at least one location
- would be on or near Indiana University campus and our committee even discussed other ideas
- for safeguards and tailoring.
- For example what about the idea of requiring one vote center location per township especially
- for people who may live in some outlying parts of the county who definitely are in need of
- access to.
- Are there any questions at this time?
- I know we're all eager to hear additional community perspectives.
- Again if you want to speak just come to the podium complete the sign in and state your
- name for the record.
- Hello my name is Laramie Wilson I'm a Monroe County resident in Van Buren township.
- I support vote centers.
- I know everybody in this room would like to see elections be accessible fair transparent
- and accurate and of course vote centers do that while also bringing Monroe County out
- of the bottom third of the state that doesn't have the accessibility of vote centers.
- As a poll worker for more than three decades over multiple precincts in Bloomington Perry
- Van Buren and maybe a couple other townships I only once had an election day that did not
- include a lost voter who could not get to their correct poll site.
- They were too late or no transportation or just gave up at that point.
- So in my roles as absentee voter lead and as a voter registration deputy clerk I served
- 16 elections answering the phones at election central on election day.
- And I will say to you that this issue of people not being able to get to their poll site affects
- every single precinct in the county possibly not some of the very rural ones that don't
- change very often but it does affect them all.
- And we will always have situations such as we did with Southside Christian Church last
- year where for whatever reason we have to change a poll site and that was just a mess.
- People were rerouted to go to Souls Harbor Church or Emmanuel Baptist Church, didn't
- get the message, didn't know and wound up clear as far as Harrisburg.
- And I also would like the board and the public to know that more than the number of people
- that show up on provisionals were at the wrong poll site.
- Lots of people come and they don't want to vote a provisional ballot.
- So with that I also will say Monroe County enjoys the support of its commissioners and
- its fiscal body, the council, but we are in a state budgetary constraint now.
- I want to make sure that, and we all do, that the rollout is smooth for vote centers if
- they are adopted.
- I support and understand the option to have 29 vote center locations.
- And I'm not going to really weigh in on the other options, that's a board decision, but
- I do have four financial concerns.
- One of them is are we adequately staffing these poll centers?
- Looking at some of our poll sites that we use, like St. John's in Richland Township
- voted more than 4,200 people.
- Down at Napa in Bloomington Parish Township more than 2,000.
- Just half of Van Buren, one, two, and three voted at Grandview, 29,000 some.
- That are much bigger turnouts than we ever see at early voting.
- This year's biggest day was 2,200 and the biggest ever was in 2016, 2,500.
- So do we have enough poll workers?
- And bear in mind that the judge's poll workers have other duties to perform, including they
- serve with the precinct inspector as the precinct election board and should be part of overseeing
- everything that's going on at that precinct.
- They cannot do that while they're stuck behind a ballot printer.
- Skipping number two and number three, I won't go into details, but with that need for staffing,
- there's also increased need for training.
- And number three, there's increased need for the technical services to be at all the poll
- sites.
- And I just want to make sure you're covering all those to adequately staff them.
- And then all this last one, number four, unless there has been a legislative change in Ms.
- Turner-King convey on this that happened in prior sessions, not this one, with that option
- about are we going to open up also satellite voting for early voting.
- Here is what the statutes now say, all counties, whether you're precinct voting or vote center
- county must open up one location in the clerk's office or a designated place designated by
- the clerk for early voting 28 days before the election.
- This is what we do now in Monroe County.
- In addition, the vote center law, I'm reading directly from the election minister's manual,
- the vote center law not only requires that one location of the county clerk's office
- be open for the voting times and dates above, but also requires at least one vote center
- used on election day in addition to the clerk's office to be open the two Saturdays before
- election day.
- So I want to make sure those at least those two Saturdays are included in the costing
- of this election.
- And I appreciate the vote center committee to extend that even further into that last
- week because as I said, Friday is the biggest day Friday before the election.
- Anyway, my comments, the reasons are for I want to see the rollout go smoothly.
- No long lines, adequate staffing, no equipment down that takes hours to get fixed up, and
- no financial surprises that the county might not be prepared to be able to handle.
- Thank you.
- I thank the the board, the clerk, the staff, the vote center committee, and our previous
- 2011 vote center committee and staff who laid the groundwork for vote centers.
- I hope Monroe County can catch up with the rest of the state.
- Thank you.
- Hello, I am Julie Thomas, Monroe County Commissioner.
- I want to thank the election board and the vote center committee and everyone who's worked
- really hard on this.
- Democracy demands convenient and accessible voting.
- That's the bottom line.
- But I am here to remind the election board that in 2023, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners
- approved resolution 2023-19 approving the designation of Monroe County as a vote center
- county and the final therefore now be it resolved is that Monroe County is approved to operate
- as a vote center county upon the required approval and filing of the county vote center
- plan by the Monroe County Election Board.
- So two years later, we are eager, we're happy to do whatever we can to help.
- And we appreciate that you've had this public comment period.
- Thank you so much.
- We have I think we have someone online who wants to make a comment.
- We'll go online and then we'll come back to the podium.
- I think it's a Penny Githins, can we unmute her?
- Hi.
- Can you hear me?
- Yes, we can.
- Okay, good evening.
- As Mr. Fernandez said, I'm Penny Githins.
- I'm a Monroe County resident and I'm one of the commissioners that in 2023 voted to support
- vote centers.
- I'm here to offer my support for implementing the vote centers here and increasing the number
- of early satellite voting locations.
- Like Ms. Wilson, I want to thank the Vote Center Study Committee for its work in providing
- a thoughtful and well-researched and concise report.
- It's significant to me that the committee voted seven to zero to approve this plan.
- Now, as the report states, over two-thirds of the Indiana counties use vote centers.
- That means 65 of Indiana's 92 counties.
- Republicans and Democrats have worked together to implement this option, including the following
- surrounding counties, Morgan in 2018, Jackson in 2021, Lawrence in 2018, and Owen in 2016.
- And it seems to me here in Monroe County that we're a little behind the times.
- I think it's time to catch up.
- And as Ms. Wilson also stated, Monroe County is facing financial challenges due to the
- recent legislation at the state level.
- One of the arguments for vote centers is that they have the potential to save money by reducing
- the number of voting locations, which reduces the cost associated with staffing.
- And as the election board chair, Mr. Fernandez, recently pointed out at a meeting, there is
- also the potential for saving on the expense of paper used for ballots.
- So while it's true there is some upfront cost for additional equipment, Sirk Brown obtained
- a state grant last year to purchase several printers, and I understand she's submitted
- an additional grant application this year.
- So this would help to offset at least some of the upfront costs to Monroe County.
- The study committee laid out different options for vote centers, with option two being to
- select 22 locations.
- And this would include hopefully one in every one of the townships, reducing the number
- of election day voting locations by seven.
- I support this option due to its cost savings and due to how close some of the most recent
- polling locations are.
- For example, it's only one-tenth of a mile between Benford Elementary School and Christ
- Community Church, and only four-tenths of a mile between Fairview Elementary School and
- the new location for election operations on North Morton Street.
- The committee, of course, has made several other suggestions for reduction.
- I also support the addition of satellite voting locations during early voting.
- I agree with the study committee that it would be ideal to add satellite locations in Ellitsville
- and near the IU campus, which IU had a satellite voting center many, many years ago.
- However, instead of a third satellite location at the southwest branch of the Monroe County
- Public Library, I personally would like to see one on the east side, say, at College
- Mall or a similar site.
- This would fit with the recommendations of the 2010 Ball State Report, which is available
- at the state website, which recommends putting satellite voting sites at "high traffic areas
- such as grocery stores and shopping malls."
- And in fact, in Vigo County, we heard that they do satellite voting at grocery stores.
- So anyway, in summary, I hope the Monroe County Election Board will unanimously vote to adopt
- both centers and to add satellite early voting locations.
- Thank you.
- Thank you for your time and your consideration.
- All right.
- Thank you.
- Just a reminder, we're trying to keep comments to three minutes.
- Thank you so much.
- My name is Peter Iverson.
- I am a Monroe County resident, Chair Fernandez, Clerk Brown, and Mr. Shields.
- Thank you for your time, your dedication to Monroe County, Chair Stonebreaker, Ms. Gandhi,
- Mr. Boland.
- Thank you for your work on this committee and for all their committee members.
- I come before you today to request your support for vote centers in Monroe County based on
- fiscal issues.
- As president of the Monroe County Personnel Administration Committee, I request unanimous
- support because I have diligently examined the operational implications of this transition.
- I am pleased to report that my questions regarding staffing and personnel were thoroughly and
- satisfactorily addressed, specifically I referred to figure five on page eight of the
- recommendations
- on vote centers for Monroe County, where concerns about potential increases in personnel costs
- were directly addressed during a recent presentation to the Monroe County Council.
- As president pro tem for that Monroe County Council, I remain steadfastly committed to
- strong fiscal stewardship of taxpayer resources.
- In this duty, I have examined the long-term operational costs for vote centers.
- Again, the committee answered my questions thoroughly and satisfactorily, and the recommendations
- detailed not only a fiscal impact that appears on pages 13 through 15 of the report, but
- in particular, I found the four cycle chart, which is figure nine, very helpful in the
- recommendations.
- These resources make my request for unanimous adoption possible.
- Now, rest assured, the county council will remain vigilant in its oversight, carefully
- monitoring overtime hours, compensatory time, requests for new positions, and additional
- appropriations.
- This scrutiny ensures transparency and accountability as we move forward with vote centers.
- Ongoing scrutiny like this is important and timely because we cannot ignore the reality
- that the severe impacts of Senate Bill 1 are just now being felt on property tax and income
- tax.
- As we approach the budget season, our county council must balance two critical priorities.
- Number one, we need to be ensuring the constitutional right of all voters while at the same time
- balancing our books.
- While fiscal caution guides our decisions, I am genuinely excited about the future of
- vote centers in Monroe County.
- The comprehensive draft plan and the process tonight represent a modernization of our electoral
- infrastructure that I feel will increase accessibility, that will improve operations, and will ingrain
- long-term efficiencies.
- Monroe County has often been at the forefront of innovation in local government in Monroe
- County and this decision will keep us there.
- Thank you for your support of vote centers in Monroe County.
- This is Christopher MG from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, but also Monroe County
- resident and voter.
- The chamber definitely supports the vote study committee's recommendation to adopting these
- vote centers.
- I don't want to reiterate too many of the points that have already been brought up,
- but our voter turnout is really low and I would say almost pathetic.
- I think we need a change of that.
- We've been into the polling places where you've been in the wrong precinct.
- We all know a friend that has been like that.
- If we look at the other 65 counties, I haven't heard anybody at least from arguments against
- going, "Those counties want to go back."
- We didn't like it.
- It just didn't work for us.
- We heard from council member Iverson about the efficiency as far as cost.
- I think sometimes you have to invest in order to save money.
- It just makes a certain amount of sense in this that we can streamline election management
- and do something that seems very 21st century.
- I think the precinct model had its day, and I don't think it is today on that.
- I'm going to recommend you move forward with that and also some satellite voting.
- I think we can have the recommendations on what that looks like.
- I don't know the specifics, but changing the model, I think, is the route to go at this
- time and appreciate it.
- Thanks.
- Good evening, I'm Karen Greenstone.
- I live in just north of Bloomington in Monroe County, and I'm here to speak from my own
- experience on Election Day.
- You may have heard it a hundred times, I don't know, but I was at the downtown what had been
- the vote center on Election Day, and it became almost a game to see if the people were at
- the right precinct.
- And I would say, without exaggerating, somewhere between 25 and a third of the people who came
- were not at the right precinct, and when they came later in the day, they may not have had
- time or transportation to get to the place where they needed to vote.
- So I'm in favor of vote centers for my own personal experience.
- Thank you.
- My name is Steve Volin.
- I am a member of the vote center study committee.
- Members of the board, I urge you to vote to adopt our report for four reasons.
- Firstly, vote centers will save money.
- We did the research.
- It's in the report.
- We won't see it in the first year because there will be an initial cost to get set up.
- We'll see the savings across the midterm city and presidential elections.
- That is over a quadrennial cycle.
- A lot of the savings come from not having to preprint ballots, but some savings will
- also come, as you've heard from personnel.
- Sites have generally not been at capacity on election day.
- The sites that remain will be more fully utilized.
- If cost is your biggest concern, amend the report from 29 not to 22, but to 20 vote centers.
- Just know that with 20, the overall cost of elections over this quadrennium will be equal
- or less than the cost of the previous quadrennium.
- It will be the county council's job to go beyond an annual view of the clerk's election
- budget when it comes to that sort of thing, but they can do it, I'm sure.
- Secondly, vote centers are not partisan.
- Only four counties in Indiana voted blue in 2024, yet more than two-thirds of counties
- in Indiana already have vote centers.
- Most of them, of course, therefore, are red counties.
- We studied a few of them.
- That's in the report.
- It turns out that Republicans who tend to prefer to vote on election day love vote centers
- just as much as Democrats do.
- Thirdly, the Secretary of State prefers vote centers.
- As early as next year, Monroe County may be forced to go to vote centers by the state.
- Better for us to have local control now over how it's done than to have the state impose
- vote centers on us if we don't act now on this plan.
- Lastly, it's not going to unlock the so-called student vote.
- How can I say this?
- Because I am living proof.
- I won five straight elections for the city council seat that had the most IU students
- in it.
- No one has been a bigger advocate for students for more than 20 years.
- I'm sure it's why I was appointed to this committee.
- But when I ran in the city at large in 2023 and for a county commissioner seat in 2024,
- I did poorly.
- Where were all these students?
- If it were true that students vote, I would have done better in those elections.
- But student precincts are always extremely low turnout.
- Vote centers will help them only as much as they will help every other demographic.
- Meanwhile, the state just this year made it harder for students to vote by not accepting
- student IDs, which are ironically issued by the state.
- Now, no matter what happens, students at IU should not be forced to vote at, say, Bloomington
- North, which is a full three miles from campus, like they had to in the most recent elections.
- But this process change will not make it any easier for students to vote than anyone else.
- Even if you believe that students should not be voting, you should adopt this change.
- Because no one should have to go out of their way to vote, no one.
- Because this makes it easier for everyone to vote.
- Amend the plan to fund only 20 centers, if you must, but please adopt this plan.
- Thank you.
- [PAUSE]
- Good afternoon, members of the election board.
- My name is David Henry.
- I'm a resident of Van Buren Township.
- I'm also a county counselor at large in this county.
- I am here today to speak in favor of the adoption of the vote center plan as presented.
- All three options are something I can support, not only as a community member, as also a
- former member of this election board and as a current member of the county council.
- In July of 2023, while president of this council and with Clerk Brown, we revisited the idea
- of trying to move us to a vote center county.
- The reasons were obvious.
- There were 60-something other counties in the state of Indiana that have already experimented,
- already ran the traps, already have gone through trials on how to use these centers in our
- counties to encourage voter turnout.
- So we're not the first county, the second county, the 10th or 20th or 50th county to
- pursue the adoption of this cost-saving solution to encouraging the voter turnout.
- We have a wealth of information to lean on, so much so that the vote center study committee,
- which has been at work diligently over the past year and a half putting together what
- has to be the most robust report on vote centers ever in the state of Indiana, with all that
- data, can show us that we've turned over every stone and really looked at a solution
- that makes sense for the county.
- From the county council perspective, I would echo the sentiments of my colleague, Councilmember
- Iverson, that of the solutions that were presented to us, we're looking at everything from a
- possibility of a no cost to our current model solution to something of roughly 5% in capital
- investment to move us forward to a vote center adoption.
- As a corollary for folks to know, in 1989, the election board had decided in its last
- iteration, when it went to different voting machines, that the cost of the county in 1989
- was $369,000 in 1989 dollars to update our equipment.
- So in some ways, the cost savings are even larger than what we've done historically
- as a county.
- Others may remember in 2011 that due to technology issues and decertification of technology that
- was purchased for voting in our county, that we had to purchase over 400 new voting machine
- equipment to come into compliance with HAVA.
- Again, we've been down this path before, elections do cost money because it is the most important
- thing in our community, to make sure that every citizen has a chance to be heard, regardless
- of party, to cause for a robust election cycle, to make sure those of us that are elected
- to office know that we're not representing a super minority of voters in the community
- that just happened to turn out that day, but the full-throated voice of Monroe County has
- been heard on election day.
- Lastly, in the 22 seconds I have, I'll offer this.
- Imagine if you were only able to shop at one grocery store in the county, the one nearest
- to your house in a geographic area, and only that one place.
- That would be kind of absurd, but with the way we treat our voting in Monroe County on
- election day, I look forward to voting in every possible location over the next 25 years
- from Bergoon to the one near my house in Highland Park.
- With that, thank you very much.
- I hope you'll adopt the plan.
- It is a cost-effective solution for our county.
- Thank you.
- [BLANK_AUDIO]
- >> Hello, I'm Carolyn Craig, resident of Monroe County.
- And very enthusiastic voter, every time there's an election,
- is one thing I always look forward to.
- But I can tell you, as someone who's run for
- a political office, I was on the school board.
- [BLANK_AUDIO]
- A long time, [BLANK_AUDIO]
- Enthusiastic voter, that one of the biggest
- causes of anxiety for anyone planning to vote is,
- where do I vote?
- And how do I find out where I vote?
- Anything that can reduce that anxiety is very welcome.
- And I hope to be able to, in my further efforts,
- registering voters to let them know that in Monroe County,
- we will have vote centers.
- Thank you.
- [BLANK_AUDIO]
- Good evening, my name is Jack Schmidt.
- I'm here to probably offer the maybe only opposing
- viewpoint to this evening's meeting.
- And I do it for a couple reasons.
- First of all, I'm a Bloomington Township resident.
- I've been voting in this county for probably 34 years.
- I will tell you that I have been so impressed, really in the past 12 years,
- with how easy it is to vote in this county.
- I think the county election board has done remarkable work on making it easy,
- making it secure, looking at all the checks and balances that are in place.
- I've been very impressed by all this stuff.
- So I have lots of confidence in what the county currently does in voting.
- So in that process, I worry less about accessibility because we make it very
- accessible.
- The other thing about it, too, is that I don't understand why we're trying to make
- it easy to vote.
- Voting is a duty, voting is a right.
- And we should be able to figure out where to vote on election day before election day.
- And yes, I have been serving in some of the precinct boards on election day, and there's
- always people getting lost.
- But there are always people getting lost all the time and everything.
- So it doesn't mean we make it very, very simple.
- We simply continue to offer the advice and counsel.
- We offer the website.
- We also, we can call the elections office or tell us where to be.
- And even if you go to the wrong precinct, which people had have done in the precinct
- I worked in, we told them where to be.
- Now if they got there at 10 minutes to six, they're going to miss.
- But that means they didn't really put a lot of effort in the process before him.
- I also like all the advances that have been made.
- So when you sound like Monroe County is weighing in the sticks and behind because you're not
- keeping up with everybody else, that reminds me of my grandmother saying, don't always
- try to be with everybody else, okay?
- Just do well what you do.
- So electronic poll books are wonderful.
- I think it's great.
- I enjoy that.
- Early voting is remarkable.
- So you've got time to get there.
- And if you can't make it on election day, then you've missed not only one day, but many
- days before.
- Finally, the other thing that I look at, especially in the community report, I read the report
- pretty intently.
- And one thing I noticed is that when they went to compare vote center sites, they didn't
- compare apple to apples.
- They compared Marion County, which is huge, and Brown County, which is very small.
- So when I just went online and found all the reports of election results in the past 12
- years for 10 counties like Monroe County, looking at population, in looking at that,
- I compared results across a four year period, four major election cycles, not off year elections.
- And then I looked at the vote centers.
- Seven of those had vote centers, three of them did not, Monroe County being one.
- The results were mixed.
- We should have, if vote centers are put in place, a higher level of turnout.
- More people voting.
- But that's just not the case, which again begs the question for me for the study committee.
- If they did such a great job of studying this, tell me any regrets of all those other counties,
- 65 of them, who have had vote centers in place.
- And why have the numbers gone down in many of those places for participation?
- That's the fundamental question here.
- If you're going to spend more money, please spend more money to make sure we get more
- people voting, and if that's not occurring, don't jump on this bandwagon so we can feel
- like we're in the 21st century.
- Maybe the old model might even work better.
- That's possible.
- Thank you.
- Good evening.
- I am William Smith from Van Buren Township.
- I wanted to thank the previous gentleman for voicing his concerns and his observation about
- how good we do elections here already.
- As a testament to how seriously we take elections in this county.
- But I've also experienced, like others here, people who have been lost.
- And while it is a duty, we also have for people to prep nowhere to have a plan to vote.
- We also have a duty as a community to make voting as accessible as possible because we
- should only make those barriers present that are necessary to safeguard free and fair elections
- and no additional hardships on anyone.
- And it also made me think about how I think this vote center approach is an attempt to
- make something go from good to better.
- We already have something good, but if we can have better and in a more affordable way,
- why would we not want to do that?
- And it also made me think about how early voting is a pilot of vote centers.
- That's what it is, and I vote early every election.
- And I think that expanding the flexibility to make things for hardworking people, people
- who are struggling with elder care, with child care, as easy as possible while still making
- sure that they are eligible voters, we are doing right by our community.
- Thank you.
- My name is Sandy Slus, and out of the 92 counties, has there -- and then turn back to the pre-state.
- No, that's unusual.
- My question is, out of the 92 counties in Indiana, has there ever been a county who went to voter
- centers and then reverted back to pre-state?
- No.
- I worked elections since 2016, and in my experience, if people went to vote, they'll figure it out.
- Good evening.
- My name is Seth Mutchler.
- I'm a Monroe County resident of 16 years now.
- I'll keep it short and sweet.
- I think many of the folks who have spoken in support of vote centers have said it more
- eloquently than I could, so I will just add my voice to voice for support, and I hope
- that you all vote yes for the vote centers this evening.
- Thank you.
- We have one person online that would like to comment.
- Looks like Eric, if we want to unmute Eric, and then, Eric, please state your full name.
- Thank you.
- Good evening.
- My name is Eric Host, and I appreciate this opportunity to offer public comment regarding
- this important matter.
- I ask that you approve the creation of vote centers in Monroe County.
- You have heard a number of insightful and definitive supporting comments from a number
- of current and former elected representatives, election office staff, vote center commissioners,
- and voters.
- The super majority of comments this evening have confidently spoken in firm support of
- the adoption of vote centers.
- I will not repeat their convincing testimony, but I will add my voice to theirs and request
- that you approve the creation of vote centers in Monroe County.
- Thank you.
- Thanks, sir.
- Other comments?
- [Pause for responses]
- Hi, my name is Ashley Carberg, and I wanted to represent the rural.
- When we think about those who, when someone says, "Oh, well, you have 28 days that you
- could do it," those in the rural areas, they could be mowing lawns.
- They could be taking people's trees down.
- They could be doing construction.
- Think of a lot of the rural work, doing farming.
- They don't have the 28 days.
- But also when we think about what's happening at the state level, there was many bills that
- were actually trying to lessen the 28 days to seven and to even 14.
- So when we think about, "Well, you had 28 days," there's people who want it to be seven.
- So if we had more opportunities so that more voices could be heard, that's a good thing.
- It's not a red, it's not blue, it's everybody united trying to make our voices heard.
- So thinking about those rural areas who are doing the backbone work and taking care of
- the counties, taking care of the cities, thinking about them, I mean, it would be so nice for
- my husband who, as he's doing everybody's lawns across the county, if he were to go
- wherever he can and not go all the way back to Washington Township.
- My neighbor goes on to Bitten, we go to Washington, literally neighbors, but thinking about that
- right there, how he stays in the county or inside the town doing most of his work.
- Think about all those who are doing that type of work, all those construction, all those,
- and if it's already trying to go to 14 to seven days, if we can make our voices heard
- regardless of our stance, that would be amazing, thank you.
- Good evening, my name is Liz Vidal, I'm also county council at large, and I've heard a lot
- of good things about supporting it, heard one thing, not to support it, but I think I'd
- like to play a little bit of devil's advocate here, so weighing all of these things, I can't
- help but think that if it isn't supported, where will we refer those calls to when they
- call in and ask the clerk's office about boat centers, who is going to take those calls,
- and I don't mean the clerk's office, the whole clerk's office didn't vote for this, there's
- two other people up here besides the clerk's office, who are going to take those citizen
- calls, who we represent, who will take those calls, I care about representation, I come
- from the union industry where I represented folks for many many years, either in the union
- local itself or with United Way in a partnership with the unions, and I care about representation,
- I've also been the voter service chair for the League of Women Voters for a decade around
- here and I've always tried to improve voting situations and get people registered to vote
- and to support anything that would improve the situation, so I urge you to think about
- those calls from those voters who may not be able to get what they need out of this
- and who are we going to refer those calls to, that's the big thing for me.
- Any other comments? I know that we received quite a bit of digital comments, some filling
- out the surveys, some submitting supplemental letters. Unless anybody opposes it, I think
- we should incorporate all of those comments into the record for our public hearings.
- Okay, so I'm going to share my screen with you guys so that we can see a table of that,
- and we received 296 comments from that digital responses online. Of that, 77%, which was
- 224 responses were for yes, 5%, which was 48, sorry, 17 responses was yes with changes
- to the plan, and 48 people, 16%, voted no to changing to vote centers. There was comments
- that were sent to each of you guys, which you have been able to review over the weekend.
- These are just some of those comments that we did receive. Most of the ones that do want
- to see changes to the plan are seeing for less centers. We also do have the question
- of where would you consider to vote on election day? It was the highest number of closer to
- home was at 31%, but we do see that large turnout of early voting being 30%. And there
- was also comments that were sent to each of you that were just basic comments of what
- their concerns or thoughts were on vote centers. And then we had individuals who did opt to
- let you guys know and give them contact information so that you can reach out to them if there
- were any other questions. After reviewing all of the comments, we did notice that many
- of the votes that were for no, their comments did lead towards that they weren't really
- understanding what vote centers were and were asking more questions about can you explain
- what a vote center is. We did reach out to quite a few of those, and I know Clerk Brown
- actually called one specifically just to have a chat with them and make sure that they understood
- what vote centers were and my office did the same thing as well when going through these
- and having people requesting more information. How many cards were mailed out? There was
- one card per residential address in Monroe County so I believe it was 64,000, about 65,000
- cards that were sent out. So our responses were 300 out of 64,000. Any other comments?
- If not, we're going to bring it up to the board for any reflections on the public comment
- as we'll wrap up the public hearing part of the proposal. All right, seeing none. Do either
- of my colleagues have any comments, suggestions? I am incredibly grateful for the people who
- have showed up and who have fiercely and passionately advocated their positions on vote centers.
- I'm not sure if you're looking for motions or if you're looking for just further discussions.
- What I'll say is that Monroe County is just the most incredible place to me in the Hoosier
- State and so much so that I made my home here. Part of what makes us attractive to the people
- who come here are the many amenities that we have and that we embrace everyone from
- all walks of life. As we consider this opportunity for vote centers, I would look to my clerk
- siblings who are already vote center counties and they feel that it is fantastic. They have
- no buyer's remorse. It cuts down on the number of provisional ballots. There's less frustration
- because they have more access to the ballot. With that, I will be supporting the universal
- plan for vote centers with the additional satellite locations during early voting. Thank
- you. >> I need to ask a couple of quick questions
- if I could. Is the document we're looking at the final document? Were there any other
- changes regarding footprints, layouts, any of that kind of stuff?
- >> The document that was presented to you is the final draft of that document and then
- any changes would be made by you and then sent back to the vote center committee is
- my understanding. >> Not so sure.
- >> I don't think any changes would be sent back to the vote center committee. This would
- be the board amending on potentially adopting a plan.
- >> I know that there are some specific findings that we have to make as part of this process
- regarding the security election connection requirements, but one of the concerns I have
- about the report and apologize to the vote center committee for bringing it up at this
- time, but the early vote centers, you know, we're making a very strong recommendation
- for additional vote centers with specific recommended locations. That gives me a lot
- of pause because I'm not sure, A, other than having a satellite center as required by the
- law when you adopt a vote center, we don't need this resolution to adopt satellite centers.
- I mean, that can happen outside of the formal process of becoming a designated county vote
- center. So, I mean, we're, that just seems like there's not nearly as much detail and
- kind of analysis as there is for the rest of the report. I'm just wondering if we should
- separate that issue.
- In reviewing the requirements for the vote center plan, it does require the designation
- of a satellite office. However, I believe if the election board wanted to in the future
- add additional satellite offices, the plan could be amended to do such and that would
- allow for the election board or it would be the election board to have the appropriate
- conversations with the locations that are potentially being proposed.
- I understand there hasn't been really any conversations with any of these sites. Are there now
- there
- have not. Yeah. So if if it's incorporated in the formal plan for vote center, if we
- make changes, does that require the election board to approve those changes unanimously?
- Once a vote center plan is if a vote center plan is approved and submitted to the state,
- that is the plan until either the election board rescinds that plan unanimously or amends
- that plan unanimously. So if the plan is submitted with just one vote center identified, that
- would be the number of vote centers until the election board said otherwise unanimously.
- I do think in the plan, it identifies election, it identifies the old Napa building. So there
- will definitely have to be an amendment to the plan because I don't know that Napa is
- not available. But to be clear, but for the one satellite center for early voting required
- as adoption of a vote center plan, the county, the election board can add satellite locations
- and that doesn't necessarily require it to be an amendment to the vote center plan if
- you're doing that outside of a vote center plan. Does that make sense?
- Yes, I would have to double check with the election division to see how the vote center
- statute with the designation of at least one interplays with the additional satellite office
- statute. No, correct me if I'm wrong then. We decide
- where the vote, where the precinct voting occurs. We could also decide to have multiple
- early voting centers totally aside from this plan if we chose to do that.
- The plan would identify the location of the vote centers in a precinct model, which is
- like our current model. The location of that is determined by the polls is determined by
- the commissioners, but in a vote center plan, you are determining the location of the vote
- centers. I want to make sure we're using the right language. I would have the vote center
- plan requires the designation of at least one satellite office, which would be early
- voting. We still have the opportunity that should
- we choose not to have vote centers in general, we could have additional satellite early voting
- areas if we chose to. I believe so. Yes. So if we stayed with our current
- model, it would be kind of like it's set up right now where the election board would designate
- an early voting site. And I do think there's a statutory option to add additional sites.
- Would we be required to have all that's assumed we would take four plus early vote the Napa
- building? Because the Napa building ought not to go away.
- The Napa building is going away. The convention center is going away.
- There will be a replacement for Napa. Fine, then let's just call it Napa.
- Let's call it Napa 2. Okay. Napa approved.
- So there will be Napa 2. So we could determine to have Napa 2 for the 28 days. Okay. And
- then if we wanted to, because of the cost, have the other four centers a shorter period
- of time should we choose to do that? Do you think the election board decides the
- hours and location of satellite off satellite voting center? So, yes, thank you.
- Would there be value given that there are some vote center committee members here? It
- sounded like you were talking about the specific locations chosen that maybe they share their
- insight as to why those locations were recommended. I think I think we know why they were
- recommended.
- I think the issue is whether or not they're accessible and even, you know, there's different,
- we don't control those buildings. So it's going to be up to the building owners and
- managers to determine whether or not you're going to have a vote center there. I mean,
- just with my knowledge of a building, I'm, you know, I'm not sure why the Center for
- Responsive Government was identified because it doesn't seem like a particularly accessible
- building to me in terms of location. May I? I'm Ami again and was a member of
- the vote center study committee and I ask Kylie and others to please weigh in as well
- because this has been a collaborative process to really just make the planning and recommendations
- as sound and well informed as possible. And relating to that last question that related
- to the willingness of the host actually more even than other considerations. It's not a
- perfect location. I have been in there. One has to be willing to host despite imperfections
- and there are great attributes of that location as well. So that's a little bit about what
- the committee's thinking was relating to that proposal. And again, it's a proposal for you
- all as the election board to act upon respectfully. I'm submitting that that we did our best to
- provide the ideas for you to improve upon and confirm and finalize. And so that's what
- I wanted to say about that location. And then for others, there was certainly analysis.
- I think it's a fair point about the greater analysis done relating to election day and
- relatively less so detailed analysis in the report about early voting. I think that also
- mirrors what our charge was as the committee, if I may posit that, because of what we were
- asked to do in the founding document for the committee. Were there any questions for the
- committee? If not, I don't need to take up further of your time, but wanted to jump up
- here in case there was any question for the committee. And just to be clear, the reason
- I raise it is that I strongly support the creation of the vote center model for Monroe
- County. I just want us to adopt a report that has specific additional recommendations regarding
- satellite voting that might muck up the plan if we have to come back and get more approvals
- to adopt, to deal with that. And we don't have any of the... The commissioners have weighed
- in pretty heavily. At least a couple of representatives, the county council have weighed in very
- favorably
- towards vote centers. People are going to talk about costs. I don't think that's really
- the issue, but I don't also want to create a situation where it makes it more difficult
- for the county council to adopt this if there's a bunch of unforeseen or unexpected additional
- costs to adopting this plan because we've added a recommendation for up to three satellite
- early vote centers. Because of all the multi-way collaboration
- required to pull off a polling place, regardless of what type of polling place is, if it's
- a super precinct or a vote center, if the election board has ideas to improve upon the
- proposals, I think that's really important. If some of the potential hosts who are named
- in the report or not even named yet are willing to be more engaged, we tried so many times
- to invite them for more engagement to our public meetings. And I think if there can
- be more engagement, for example, by the university about more favorable locations or by other
- stakeholders, I think that would be phenomenal. And so really the committee is intending to
- put this in the election board's hand for further improvement and as Molly and others
- set forth for the amendments that might be appropriate.
- Well, I would just make this comment to my colleagues on the board. I still think that,
- you know, if there's a desire to add more satellite centers, this can require all the
- kinds of collaboration and consultation that he's raised. But we're being asked to vote
- on a specific vote center plan that is saying that we will have three early voting centers
- in addition to the changes related to the vote center.
- And I would just personally, I mean, if the board wants to go a different direction, I'm
- open to that. But I feel a lot more comfortable voting on a clean vote center proposal that
- early vote like we have. And then if the county, if the election board and the community wants
- to go further with other early satellite voting systems, there's nothing that would preclude
- us from doing that. And we'd have the opportunity to do that in the same manner that we just
- raised in terms of all the collaboration. But if we adopt a plan with three, we're adopting
- a plan with three satellite centers.
- And per the vote center statute, you're identifying the total number and locations of those
- satellite
- offices. And I think the plan identifies IU Center on representative government, which
- I imagine will encompass a conversation with the board of trustees, the Monroe County Public
- Library, which will also have a conversation with their board, and then Ellitsville Town
- Hall, which I imagine I would feel more comfortable advising the board to go ahead and designate
- those as part of the plan and identified locations if we knew those were going to be the locations
- for sure. And those conversations occurred that. And as you guys know, the election board
- could amend that portion completely out of the plan if you choose to. But the student
- on the center on representative governments was chosen because we got to spend a full
- day there this last year just before the general election. And they voiced their gratitude
- of potentially being a vote center location in the future because they were able to associate
- parking for us that day. They also had stated that we can take a look around that entire
- building. And when we did, we did decide and I had brought our I.T. team out and they had
- also said that they thought it would be a great location for a vote center if we were
- to adopt it. I'd like to make an amendment then to the
- report. I'll close an amendment to the report. Then on page 12.
- Yes, so on page 12 of the report, section G, section G4, I would recommend that we delete
- the last two sentences of that paragraph. May I trouble you to read the last two sentences
- into the minutes? Yeah, the last two sentences, the committee
- recommends three vote centers be open at least 10 days prior to an election. Possible locations
- include Ellisville Town Hall, the IU Center of Representative Government in Monroe County
- Public Library Southwest Branch, see Figure 7. So it still states that the committee advises
- that we increase them, but it doesn't include those specific ones in the report. Then along
- with that, there would be an additional amendment to section H2, that is on page 18. And for
- that amendment, I would delete all the language after the parentheses where it has election
- operations in quotes. So as amended, it would say that committee recommends at least one
- vote center to be open. The state mandated 28 day early voting period before election
- day, the clerk's office should identify replacement for the current early voting site at 302 South
- Walnut Street, referred to as election operations. And then we would delete the recommendation
- for the additional votes, early vote centers and the specific recommended locations. That's
- my motion to amend the report. Make a second? - I'll second that, yeah. - Comments? - I
- am concerned. I don't want that to be a slow roll to a no in that now we're publicly talking
- about this. We have, you know, the ear of the Monroe County community, elections cost money.
- I don't want to break news to anybody here, but it is not cheap to oversee a quality election.
- And the rules change at the legislative level a lot. And so if we delete, if we make the
- changes as far as the amendment that you're recommending, then when it's time to talk
- about it, the first thing that's going to come up is money. And that's, I didn't think
- that that was the driving force from the vote center committee. I felt the driving force
- was we need to have satellite locations during that last 10 days.
- I mean, Nicole, the spirit behind my recommendation isn't to slow roll towards a no, it's to fast
- track towards a yes. Because that other component is the least developed part of our recommendation.
- And I don't want that to be an excuse for people to say no, especially when we get to
- the county council. So it's my intent is not to slow it down, it's to actually speed it
- up. We can get the vote center designation, assuming we can get three votes for that.
- And then as process unrolls, there's going to be opportunities to discuss additional
- early voting beyond the one that statue fire, which we currently have. And I don't see that
- as a mechanism to slow anything down or make this a debate about money. Because I think
- the county council is going to have that debate and where it should happen with those elected
- officials. I will say during the committee, there was
- definitely less conversation about early voting than there was about vote centers in general.
- So I don't think that the vote center committee ever intended that it would be like a huge
- yes, we absolutely believe that you guys need to have the extra early voting locations.
- I think it was an additional, hey, this is the input that we're receiving from community
- members that they believe that there should be more voting locations for early voting.
- And it on me, Steve, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that the main reason they added
- in there was so that it opened up the conversation for more voting back.
- All of the input that we got from all of the different community engagement sessions
- and the other work of the committee, whether we asked about it or not, we got consistent,
- repeated input about the need for more early voting locations. So while agreeing with everything
- that Kylie said and that I mentioned before, it was brought up as a sentiment from voters
- again and again throughout the course of our work. And it seems like you may want to add
- something as well? Just briefly, yeah. The other issue is that part of the charges we understood
- it was that at a certain point we had to tie up the report and hand it to the election board,
- who we then would count on to decide what to do with it, including amend it, cut parts of it as
- Mr. Fernandez is proposing. So one of the things we're waiting for is whether or not we're going
- to be discharged. In other words, if you want to send the report back to us to think about
- early voting centers, you know. Well, I think our intention as a committee is to
- hand it to you all now. And there was a mention in the founding document for our committee,
- it's two words. It says early voting alongside a lot of other verbiage about what we should mainly
- be focused on. And so that context is important as far as it was our responsibility to include
- our analysis, however brief, and the input, repeated input that we got from voters about
- needing greater early voting access. So that's represented in what you see.
- Any other comments on the proposed amendment?
- I'll entertain a vote for that. So to be clear,
- two pieces of the report that the amendment applies to, section G4 and section H2.
- Before we proceed to a vote, I'm not sure that the motion received a second. Okay,
- sir. All right, then in regards on the motion to amend and delete the language as identified by
- Mr. Fernandez. Clerk Brown? Yes. Mr. Fernandez? Yes. Mr. Shields? No. Motion passes to zero.
- So now we're back to the amended report. Any additional comments from members of the board?
- Well, if no one else is, I will. I think this report should be adopted.
- I think the vote center plan really is about accessibility, but it's also about efficiencies.
- It's kind of an antiquated system that we have today. Does it work okay? Yeah, it works okay,
- but it could be better. And, you know, when you look at just the patterns of population
- distribution,
- I mean, the counties or the voting locations right now are really
- less equal, particularly when you get into some of the more rural parts of Monroe County.
- If you look at the number of votes per voting place and others, it's just, you know, it seems
- like we could do a lot better. The vote centers are just such an over... I mean, to me, it's like
- way
- overdue. And for many of us who do vote early, I mean, when you go in and vote early, you're just
- sitting there going, "Why is it like this everywhere where I can, you know, print a ballot and vote?"
- And so, I don't really, you know, I'm open to... I thought Mr. Schmidt's comments were well put. I
- mean, I, you know, I think those are legitimate cases to make. I just think that at this time,
- it's time for Monroe County to become a vote center county. It will increase the effectiveness
- of how we administer our elections. It will continue to be a very secure system, but it'll
- be one that I think makes it more equitable in terms of how we make it possible for people to
- get out and vote, particularly on election day when we have such a limited window of six to six.
- So, I'm going to vote in favor of the report and the recommendation to take it forward to the
- county council. I do know that we need to, as part of this process, make some formal findings as to
- some of the statutory requirements. That's correct. I did prepare a
- proposed resolution and I will share that in a minute, but real quick, I need to correct
- the roll call. I just said it was 2-0 and it passes 2-1. Oh, thank you.
- Yes, Danny's vote counts. It counts. I'm sorry, Mr. Shields. I didn't go to law school for math.
- I've been married way too long. All right. So, we do have a resolution.
- Where is it? Resolution of the board
- that does make some of the formal findings as required by the statute in regard to
- the secure electronic connections as well as the accessibility requirements. In our resolution,
- we are specifically establishing Monroe County as a vote center county with 29
- number of vote centers aligned with the recommendation of the study committee
- and that the election board would order staff to submit the plan with all the required and
- supporting documents once it is approved by the Monroe County Council. That's the next
- gating issue here that we would submit this to the state. So, do we have a motion to adopt the
- resolution? I will make a motion to adopt the resolution. I will second. Comments? No, sir.
- This is a roll call on the resolution that is displayed on the screen that finds the statutory
- requirements and that designates Monroe County as a vote center county with 29 vote centers.
- Clerk Brown? Yes. Mr. Fernandez? Yes. Mr. Shields? I have a statement I'd like to make, please.
- Okay. While I'm a seasoned veteran of the elections in Monroe County,
- my first one was 1972. I am a new member of this board. I take this position very seriously.
- Here are a few things that stand out to me about the report and the plan.
- First, let's be clear. We don't live in a pure democracy. Democracies don't last long because
- as soon as two people realize they can legally take someone else's property, it often leads to
- conflict and violence. We live in a representative republic where representatives are elected by
- the
- people of their district, whatever that district may be. I'm strongly in favor of minimizing taxes.
- Taxation, for any reason, is taking money from someone else who worked for it and using it for
- purposes they may not support. Property taxes, for example, are immoral and should be abolished.
- Spending taxpayer dollars, for any reason, should be carefully scrutinized.
- I've read the report of the committee and I was there when the committee began.
- It is important to note that the committee was never entirely unbiased. They never considered
- whether vote centers are a good idea. They were always focused on getting them implemented.
- There are some good things in reports such as the fact that electronic polling books are good
- if the electricity works. One thing the committee never asks is whether increasing voter turnout is
- the main goal or responsibility of the election board. For the record, it is not. The goal of the
- election board is to run fair, cost-effective, bipartisan elections for the government. It is
- the job of the political parties, civic groups, educational organizations, among others, to drive
- voter turnout. If it were not, we would not have repetitive commercial season every year.
- The report never mentioned why vote centers were not adopted in 2011. It never touched on
- what the usages were then. It never touched on what needed to be done to change them. I've been
- doing my own research on election costs and it seems that Monroe County has regularly spent much
- more per vote than many other counties. Our cost per vote is considerably higher than that of many
- other counties, so now we are asked to add over $600,000 for equipment. Despite the findings of
- the committee, my research shows that vote center counties do not have noticeably higher vote
- turnout.
- Their own numbers back this up. The committee and one political party of Monroe County has
- been really focused on getting people to our meetings who want vote centers. They never
- entertained having people who were not interested in them. Why not? I did my own research with the
- people I represent. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. I visited an IU College Republican meeting
- and
- asked how many of them had an issue either here or at home of finding their polling place. The
- answer
- was none. So is it the taxpayer's responsibility to spend tax dollars for people who will not do
- their own research to find their designated polling place, a space with all the early voting time
- available? I reached out to others on social media platforms and the results were the same.
- Literally zero were in favor of vote centers. Their concerns were about why should it be easier
- for non-residents to vote. If people pay out of state tuition, they are not residents of Monroe
- County. I also visited a group of Republican party workers with the same result. In three separate
- meetings, there was zero support for centers. There's much to say about other issues of Monroe
- County, but we can talk about them at a different time. My goal is to have the best, most
- responsive
- government possible in Bloomington and Monroe County. I'm here as a representative of a large
- group of citizens who identify as Republicans and following their clearly spoken wishes,
- my vote on the issue of adding vote centers is no.
- So the resolution and adoption of the amended vote center plan fails two to one.
- Passes two to one, but it fails because the state law requires unanimous vote. Correct.
- Okay. Do we have any other business for the election board?
- Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. All right, we are adjourned.
- (orchestral music)