- Good afternoon, I will call the August meeting of the rural county election board to order. We will start with the approval of the minutes from the June 2025 meeting. I'm sorry, go ahead. I will make a motion to approve the minutes from June 2025. We have a motion and a second second motion and a second. Those in favor say aye.
- Opposed? Motion carries. We'll move to the clerk's update. Good afternoon. I almost said good morning. That's how fast the day has gone. I wanted to just touch on the clerks had their annual clerks conference in June that was held at the Sheridan Hotel in Indianapolis.
- for the course of three days, and that's when we all come together. I believe 88 of the 92 counties were represented, and it's just a time where we learn and we talk about issues that we're having in our respective counties and look for best practices to resolve them. On the legislative piece of that, since we didn't meet in July, the big thing that came up at the conference was the
- legislation that changed the definition of a candidate what a candidate how a candidate is defined and that necessitated people who had closed out their-
- they had to come back and reopen them because that definition now calls for includes elected officials and so I understand there was a lot of frustration about that that was not generated by your Monroe County clerk that was generated by state legislation and we just had to comply we appreciate those of us who those of you who came and did that without you know
- sniff sniffing at the staff because it wasn't their fault they were just doing their jobs and for those of you who were frustrated I encourage you to reach out to your your legislator. The other thing the two bills that seem to be the most provide the most heartburn house bill 1679 which is
- to touch on in a little bit but it's about the non-citizen people who have been issued temporary credentials as we are implementing that law which became effective June 1st. There's some heartburn in the community. Again, this is your legislative body. We are just doing our best to wrap our arms around this new legislation and implement it as it was intended but essentially
- it says you have 30 days to prove your citizenship and so as I understand from miss Kylie letters were sent out to all of the voters that were flagged in our statewide voter registration for having the temporary credentials and some people as I understand it have already come in to bring their proof of citizenship and as we
- look at as the IU students begin to make their way back to Bloomington I just think it's going to be imperative. We always remind you and we always encourage you to check your voter registration status on indianavotors.com or indianavotors.gov you know so that if there are any changes you want to make sure to address that in this non-election year
- so that by the time we are ready for the off presidential elections next year we're we're ready to roll. And on the final legislative thing that I want to bring to your attention again as the students are coming Senate bill ten
- That is the legislation that says that we can no longer accept student IDs. I think it's going to be imperative that our friends who normally help us getting the word out about early voting and election day help us to also educate our student voters that that has changed so that they can make decisions in the best interest of their voter registration. Since we last met,
- We have a new party chair. I asked if she would provide us with a bio, and the bio reads as follows.
- Chrissy Gilles is a proud Bloomington native with deep roots in the community and an even deeper love for its people. Born and raised in this vibrant, creative town, Chrissy grew up surrounded by the arts, activism, and the kind of quirky charm that makes Bloomington feel like home to so many. She believes that the spirit of Bloomington, welcoming, weird, and wonderfully committed to progress, is worth protecting and celebrating.
- Now serving in local Democratic Party leadership, Chrissy brings that same hometown pride and passion into her work every day. Her mission is simple but powerful to help build a future where everyone in Bloomington has access to economic opportunity, a thriving community, and the freedom to live with joy, dignity, and creativity.
- Whether it is through expanding local jobs, protecting what makes our town special, or making sure that every voice is heard in the political process, Chrissy is dedicated to ensuring that Bloomington stays not only a beacon of hope for Indiana, but a place where people from all walks of life can truly thrive. And with that, we welcome the new party chair.
- And in one of her first official acts, she has appointed a member to the election board. And so I will just turn the mic over so that they can introduce themselves. Thank you, Claire Brown. I'm Penny Githins. I'm a former Monroe County Commissioner and have been involved with county government now for over six years. And so I look forward to serving on this board. And I feel like I have a different kind of background and experience to bring to the position. Thank you.
- Thank you, Clark Brown. Election Central, that means Miss Kiley is now up. Good afternoon. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're fine. Is there any public comment on what we've already done? No. Thank you. So I am going to go over a couple of different things that are going on in our office right now. First off, I want to
- Let candidates know that we do officially have our candidate packets ready for the 2026 primary. You are able to stop by our office at any time during the day, Monday through Friday, 8 to 4 PM, and pick up one of those packets. It'll have all of your information from filing to when your deadlines are. And we also have the election calendar that's in there for you as well. Moving forward from that, we have the citizenship update.
- So on July 1, the new bill went into effect and we have been working with the community on making sure that they are knowledged on what is going on, but as of
- July 31st, we sent out 26 letters requesting those voters for proof of citizenship. And as of today, 31 letters in total have gone out. We have had three voters come in to provide their proof of citizenship since then. And one letter has came back as undeliverable. When we have letters that come back as undeliverable, they will stay in the 30-day hopper. That's a hold that will keep them in there for that full 30 days. If we do not receive proof of citizenship before then, they will be
- were rejected from registering to vote. There is a citizenship maintenance hopper. Those are individuals who were registered to vote before the law went into effect that were issued a temporary credential at some point. Those individuals were also sent their letters. We've had the three that have came in to clarify theirs. They were from that hopper, so we have been able to get them cleared and their registrations are active.
- And then I have the voter list maintenance update. Since July 1st, we have processed 1,899 voters. As of 920 this morning, 48 voters have stayed active, 1,843 have been moved to inactive, five have been rejected, and three have been canceled. We will continue to process these and I will have another update on voter list maintenance for you guys at the next election board meeting.
- And then lastly, we are going to be holding a poll worker appreciation brunch on Tuesday next week.
- Tuesday next week is actually National Poll Worker Recruitment Day. Last year, we held a punch and cookie social for them so that they could come in between the elections and get to know each other and just have time to thank them for their work. We're going to do that again this year, but we're doing it a little bit bigger because we don't have an election this year, and we have the time to plan for it. And we just want to thank all of the poll workers who have helped us in dedicated time to make the election smooth in Monroe County.
- Thank you. Any public comment? Being done, I'm going to circle back to the clerk. With respect have with Kylie and I both having touched on the citizenship legislation. My understanding is that
- this legislation is creating some fear and some confusion. I want every voter in Monroe County to know that we want to help you make things right with respect to your having received a letter. If there is anything that we can do, we don't wanna contribute to this fear. And I just want every Monroe County voter to know if you receive that letter, you don't have to get anxious or feel
- that there's a problem with you coming forward and talking to us because we want to help you get this right so that you can vote in the next election. And then on the poll worker appreciation brunch, which we're very excited about, I want to make very clear that
- everything that will be served at that has been donated or is being donated that is not coming out of an election clerk or otherwise Monroe County budget that we had to want anyone to say you know we're partying on the county dime we are not they are donations for which we are incredibly incredibly grateful and the chance to every chance we can get to thank our valuable poll workers we want to take advantage of that's all I wanted to say thank you
- I'll add on to that a little bit. Some of the food that is being donated for sure is coming from Bloomington Bagel here in Monroe County. And then we've also been in communication with a couple others. We believe Hopscotch might be donating as well. And there is another coffee shop that we are in communications with that has said that they are willing to look into donations as well. New business.
- We'll move to that late missing CFA one filings. All right, that's going to be me again. So we had the CFA one filing deadline that was on July 11 at noon.
- We did receive a good majority of those that came into our office. We had one that was filed late and then we have eight that are still missing. I gave you guys that list so it is in your packets and I just need to clarify with you guys that I am good to go ahead and send them all letters notifying them that either they have been late or their letters are delinquent.
- I assume that would require a motion. Am I correct with that? OK, then I will make a motion that we tell Kylie that she can send those notifications out. Thank you. Those in favor I. I I opposed. Motion carries Kylie commence sending those filings out. Thank you guys. All right and then attorney Schilling for the
- What are the fun things of the day? Thank you very much. Dave Schelling from the legal department. And I've presented you today with a retainer agreement for Barnes and Thornburg to assist the legal department in the federal district court case unite or count us in at all versus Diego Morales at all.
- And that's a lawsuit that's been filed in federal court challenging Senate Bill 10, which prohibits the use of student IDs for voter identification purposes. And I guess I would direct your attention to the third paragraph of this retainer letter that basically states that the representation of Barnes and Thornburg is going to be limited to assisting us in
- court conferences and hearings and discovery complying with discovery requests and so forth and will not be with taking a position on the validity of Senate bill ten through this. We attempted Molly had called the attorney general's office
- and had asked them to basically represent us on this, since we're subject to the same statute that the state election board is, and they refused. So that's one reason why we're retaining Barnes and Thornburg for this purpose. The payments for this will come out of the legal department budget. If you approve this, I would request that you designate one member of the election board
- with the authority to sign this retainer agreement on behalf of the election board. Aiden seconded, I will volunteer to sign. Okay. Those in favor, aye. Aye. Okay. Next. And who will be signing on? I am volunteering to sign. Very good. That's it. Unless you have any questions.
- None to you. I have no questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. I've just discovered, I saw the little hand up on the screen. I wasn't sure what that meant, but we have people that want to speak. So the first one, I assume somebody in tech here pushes the button. So I need to call the name for that. How do we handle that? I'm sorry. OK, Gloria. It says Gloria Howell. Yes. Go ahead.
- I honestly was raising my hand so that someone would see Jennifer Crossley's hand, because her hand was up before mine, and I was just trying to make sure that she's able to speak. So that was just so we would not miss her. Yeah, I've got you on that. Yes. All right. So that makes that easy. Then I'll go to Jennifer Crossley. Good afternoon. Can you all hear me? Yes.
- Okay, hey, good afternoon, Jennifer Crossley. I had my hand earlier, so thanks to Dr. Howell for, you know, trying to wave the flag. I know it's hard sometimes navigating meetings when it comes to trying to look at different space or spaces and places for hands raised, but I did have my hand raised on a topic that was earlier. You know, it is, you know, I'll, you know, it's no surprise that
- um you know the commissioner or former commissioner of pin giffins um and current clerk nicole brown has had some you know some run-ins and some things that have been unpleasant um but i would just hope with respect to everything that's happening where we see vitriol and nastiness throughout every
- piece of government from federal all the way down to even sometimes our local level, that I would just hope that moving forward that the three of you all can work together and that respect can be given to Clerk Nicole Brown in regards to what it is that she's trying to do with elections and protecting them and all of those things. All of you, at least two of you were appointed. And so, you know, we just want to make sure and ensure rather that the respect
- is given to her as an elected and as an elected myself who finds it really difficult sometimes to have conversations with people who can have, you know, difference of opinions or, you know, might show their disdain or, you know, maybe disagreements, whether it is, you know, rolling of eyes or different types of things. I just really hope that moving forward that, you know, and
- she would be given the honor of.
- you know, being respected. Again, it's hard to do those things. But again, there are much harder things that are coming down the pike from the state. And so I just really wanted to comment and just say that I just hope that everybody on the election board, even, you know, you to Mr. Shields would all be able to go and agreement and respectfully get along. But I just wanted to highlight as the black elected myself to another black elected. I hope she gets that respect. So thank you for your time.
- Thank you. I guess we'll open for public comment. The policy is three minutes. We are finished with anything short after that.
- public comment. Okay, that's what I figured and if anyone wants to jump after me then it'll be, it'll give them time to get their hands raised. So I'm Cheryl Langdon and I am a former employee of the Election Central. It was two years ago today that I started to see the lies at Election Central under Clerk Brown's administration. It was two years ago that I tried to receive appropriate training for my position begging for more work
- and opportunities in my service to the taxpayers, while seeing my immediate supervisor being forced to resign for no apparent reason. It was a complete mystery, but that mystery unveiled itself slowly with strange new unexpected hires of incompetent, deceitful people that Clerk Brown personally placed in authoritarian roles. People who didn't know how to use a simple computer calendar or Microsoft application
- people who were being paid for their fake merits and discovered to be incompetent and trustworthy of their new positions. When I accepted the position and I left my other job for the opportunity to represent my party, I said to everyone I spoke to that I took the position to improve my party and I took it serious. I said it was time to get back my party back on track and align with the values of the American people.
- I was committed to recover the derailed Democratic Party and to return it to a place of good governance that stands on good faith to serve all people, not just the most marginalized people who are being exploited by my party. I said that I would die if I had to in order to get the party back on track to align with American family values. And I almost died doing that. My fellow co-workers in leadership were killing me. I was shocked that it was really possible.
- that that became my experience. My life was literally put in jeopardy under Brown's administration. I stand here today as a reminder of the important work that still needs to happen in the Democratic Party. We have been infiltrated by the party of corruption. Shady politicians have destroyed what's left of our republic. They smile with their crocodile teeth, making promises with their lying tones. And as soon as they get into office, they help out their friends,
- who help them get there and give themselves raises while robbing the taxpayers, exploiting NGOs, shaking down every local taxpayer through local taxation to rob us through federal taxation, double-dipping, while exploiting the most vulnerable. Are you tired of the lies? Yet. Are you sick of the manipulation? I know I am. We need real change in the Democratic Party, and it doesn't include socialism.
- ask the Cuban refugees who flood the state of Florida how that worked out for them. We cannot afford two options of a socialist candidate or a corrupt old guard from the boomer generation in the Democratic Party. Those aren't options. That is manufactured consent. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other public comment?
- seeing that I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Move. I'd like to ask a couple questions. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah. Part of this, I wanted to ask Ms. Molly Turner King, I'm accustomed to a slightly different procedure in terms of how motions are done. Do we take comments on the motions before a vote is done in this situation, the way they do with the board of commissioners?
- either could be acceptable. And so it would be a board preference. Then also, I know that soon the election board budget will have to go before the county council. Will we see that next month? Okay. I didn't know if we, the reason I wanted to halt on adjourning is I didn't know if we'd need to take a recess if there was a critical time component.
- And then as we look at that budget, for me, it would really help if I could see the budgets from a couple previous cycles and to know also how much was spent so that we have some sense of that. I'd really. Meetings that I had participated in, we went straight to the to the vote. So I have no issue with public comment beforehand on that.
- or member comment, either one. That's not a problem. So now I will entertain it. We've had a motion to adjourn. It's been seconded. Those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, the meeting is adjourned.