WEBVTT 00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:07.853 - So the January 2026 election board meeting is called to order. We'll start with an approval of the minutes 00:00:07.853 --> 00:00:14.982 - and Skiddens wants to make a minor adjustment. On the last page, go ahead. Where it currently reads 00:00:14.982 --> 00:00:22.467 - Ralph Shaw ask about the noise suppression for voting in the new location. I'm asking that it be amended 00:00:22.467 --> 00:00:29.310 - to read Ralph Shaw ask about the noise suppression for voting in the new early voting location. 00:00:30.146 --> 00:00:40.545 - Just to insert those two words. I don't have any issues, so insert those two words. In the official 00:00:40.545 --> 00:00:51.255 - minutes. OK, then I will move that we adopt the adjusted minutes. Second. Those in favor aye. Opposed. 00:00:51.255 --> 00:00:58.846 - All right, then the clerks update. Just a couple of quick updates first. 00:01:00.034 --> 00:01:09.046 - We recently attended the Election Administration Conference in Indianapolis. That is always an incredible 00:01:09.046 --> 00:01:17.634 - opportunity to not only network and connect with other election administrators throughout the state, 00:01:17.634 --> 00:01:26.306 - but also just the incredible knowledge that you get from being at that. I thought it was an excellent 00:01:26.306 --> 00:01:27.326 - conference. 00:01:27.522 --> 00:01:34.794 - just want to give a shout out to the Indiana election division and all of the partners that they utilize 00:01:34.794 --> 00:01:41.996 - to put on such a magnificent conference. They took incredible care of us and I think we all walked away 00:01:41.996 --> 00:01:49.406 - knowing more than what we came with. The second thing in my capacity as chair of the legislative committee 00:01:49.406 --> 00:01:54.462 - for both the clerks association and the association of Indiana counties. 00:01:54.786 --> 00:02:02.323 - legislative we did kick off this week and I already have a bill list in terms of the bills that are 00:02:02.323 --> 00:02:10.462 - going to be going before the legislators this session the most of the time there are bills that are brought 00:02:10.850 --> 00:02:19.063 - every year they're not likely to get any traction but I do want to put on the radar two house bills 00:02:19.063 --> 00:02:27.522 - to follow and I'll try to bring information as often as I can in terms of updates. House Bill 1096 was 00:02:27.522 --> 00:02:34.174 - written by Representative Prescott and this one is where Representative Prescott 00:02:34.466 --> 00:02:40.865 - wrote a bill that allows an individual to affiliate with a political party when registering to vote 00:02:40.865 --> 00:02:47.392 - would require the text would you like to choose your political party if you wish to vote in a primary 00:02:47.392 --> 00:02:53.919 - election you must first choose that political party affiliation and may only vote that party's ballot 00:02:53.919 --> 00:02:56.862 - in the primary election it is also giving you 00:02:57.730 --> 00:03:06.499 - you may vote at the primary election if you are affiliated with the political party not later than 119 00:03:06.499 --> 00:03:15.183 - days before the date of the primary election. It's on our radar in terms of what it will mean for the 00:03:15.183 --> 00:03:23.952 - clerk's association and we are meeting as a legislative committee to look at just how that impacts the 00:03:23.952 --> 00:03:27.358 - responsibilities of the clerk. And then 00:03:27.458 --> 00:03:34.800 - just dropped last night. I just got the bill number prior to this meeting. House Bill 1359 authored 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:42.802 - by Chairman Tim Westco. Um, and that bill does contain the legislative ask of the entire clerks association. 00:03:42.802 --> 00:03:50.658 - And so, um, I'll be keeping you updated as we go along, but I just wanted to let you know that legislation 00:03:50.658 --> 00:03:53.374 - session is often running. Thank you. 00:03:54.242 --> 00:04:02.473 - The first one was what they're calling the close primary bill, I assume, correct? Yes. And that it's 00:04:02.473 --> 00:04:10.704 - a little controversial in that most people do not want you to know their political affiliation. They 00:04:10.704 --> 00:04:19.179 - want to vote for who they want to vote for. And so it has not been the case that you've had to identify 00:04:19.179 --> 00:04:22.846 - what political party you're affiliated with. 00:04:24.578 --> 00:04:30.949 - We try to make it as discreet as possible, but you could be standing next to your neighbor who happens 00:04:30.949 --> 00:04:37.320 - to know your political affiliation. And so if you chose the opposite, your neighbor might call you out 00:04:37.320 --> 00:04:43.629 - or something like that. And so this would close that loophole. Wouldn't that cause a problem, though, 00:04:43.629 --> 00:04:49.814 - too, since people can register to vote up till the day before early voting starts, and he's putting 00:04:49.814 --> 00:04:51.422 - on a 119-day requirement? 00:04:52.610 --> 00:05:00.015 - I do not know Representative Prescott. I am letting you know the bill as I understand it. As a legislative 00:05:00.015 --> 00:05:07.212 - body, we have discussed it preliminarily. And I will provide updates as I have them. I heard somewhere, 00:05:07.212 --> 00:05:14.410 - read this morning also, that there is a bill to do away with straight party voting. So every year there 00:05:14.410 --> 00:05:20.638 - is a bill to do away with straight party voting. There is not a palette for that at least 00:05:22.018 --> 00:05:29.609 - from my perspective, going up to the state house, a lot of our elderly want to have that straight party. 00:05:29.609 --> 00:05:37.199 - It certainly makes it easier for them. It is kind of an issue in terms of the Clerks Association because 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:44.790 - we want to be able to have you vote so that there's no confusion when we meet as an election board body, 00:05:44.790 --> 00:05:48.766 - so that there is no confusion as to who you voted for. 00:05:49.922 --> 00:05:57.991 - we would like for you to vote for the candidate, not the party. However, from other organizations have 00:05:57.991 --> 00:06:05.903 - other priorities. And so there's may not necessarily line up with how we view straight party voting. 00:06:05.903 --> 00:06:14.206 - Does that make sense? Yeah, I just read it. I mean, on a personal standpoint, I don't ever vote straight. 00:06:14.206 --> 00:06:18.750 - I read every one and say, have you earned my vote or not? 00:06:19.586 --> 00:06:27.593 - So whatever, yeah. Optimally that would be the case. I remember a sweet little old man when I went around 00:06:27.593 --> 00:06:35.147 - to every one of the assisted living or independent living or health care facilities for the elderly 00:06:35.147 --> 00:06:42.776 - when I first became clerk and this sweet little man, this was about the primary and he couldn't vote 00:06:42.776 --> 00:06:45.118 - straight ticket and so he said 00:06:45.218 --> 00:06:52.869 - You're not giving me my wish. And I said, what is your wish, sir? I want to be able to vote, you know, 00:06:52.869 --> 00:07:00.669 - straight. I said, well, I tried to explain, sweetheart. This is when you pick who will be on the ballot. 00:07:00.669 --> 00:07:08.320 - And then you're able to vote. OK, but you're not giving me my wish. And so a sweet little man who just 00:07:08.320 --> 00:07:14.782 - didn't understand, that bill that you mentioned is typically brought up every session. 00:07:15.938 --> 00:07:23.711 - most of the time it is not given a hearing. The thing that I take took from our thing in Indianapolis 00:07:23.711 --> 00:07:31.866 - was they've made election law in some cases I think more complicated than it needs to be. I won't disagree 00:07:31.866 --> 00:07:37.886 - with you and part of that is when we have our clerk's legislative ask you know 00:07:38.082 --> 00:07:46.786 - You want to make it easier for clerks to oversee elections, not harder. But you want to balance it out 00:07:46.786 --> 00:07:55.490 - with election law and making sure that you're complying with statute. It's a very fine line. There was 00:07:55.490 --> 00:08:03.941 - a lot of stuff there. There's a lot. It's not for the faint of heart. OK. Is there a public comment 00:08:03.941 --> 00:08:06.814 - on the clerk's update? Sherrilyn? 00:08:06.946 --> 00:08:16.294 - And so, concerning the whole thing about voting, straight ticket and all that, my two cents, I would 00:08:16.294 --> 00:08:25.642 - rather invite an opportunity to have more informed voters that don't vote straight, that aren't just 00:08:25.642 --> 00:08:33.694 - falling into cults of personality and then going straight ticket. So maybe that would, 00:08:34.210 --> 00:08:42.483 - to actually be more informed before they vote and investigate. We're in the age of technology, instantaneous 00:08:42.483 --> 00:08:50.301 - communication. We have all the information at our fingertips. Maybe being an informed voter is better, 00:08:50.301 --> 00:08:58.043 - but that's just my two cents. Thank you. All right, election central update. Miss Kylie, I think this 00:08:58.043 --> 00:08:58.878 - is on you. 00:08:59.234 --> 00:09:06.543 - Yes. So I'm going to start off with the voterless maintenance update. We actually had a final delivery 00:09:06.543 --> 00:09:13.993 - of voterless maintenance yesterday. So we now have all of them in our office. They are not all processed 00:09:13.993 --> 00:09:21.373 - yet. We are still working through a very, very long process on that. We have processed a total of 7,592 00:09:21.373 --> 00:09:22.366 - cards so far. 00:09:22.530 --> 00:09:32.828 - that is 6,438 have been made inactive, 949 have stayed active, and then we have an additional 207 that 00:09:32.828 --> 00:09:43.327 - have been canceled. And then the current number of registered voters at this time is 89,214, with 74,828 00:09:43.327 --> 00:09:48.926 - of those being active voters and 14,386 being inactive. 00:09:49.378 --> 00:09:57.854 - And then finally, I have a upcoming important dates list. So yesterday was the first day of candidate 00:09:57.854 --> 00:10:06.496 - filing. We had a good turnout yesterday. And then we have a county council meeting coming up on January 00:10:06.496 --> 00:10:14.806 - 27th. I will be going on next Tuesday to give them a little brief introduction of what we're coming 00:10:14.806 --> 00:10:18.462 - and asking for appropriation-wise. And then 00:10:19.490 --> 00:10:26.070 - We will be there on the 27th. I will send out a public notice for that. And then all of the information 00:10:26.070 --> 00:10:32.587 - that I have that will be submitted as well will go out to the election board for that. And then annual 00:10:32.587 --> 00:10:38.977 - CFA for reports are due on January 21st by noon in our office. If you have any questions on those or 00:10:38.977 --> 00:10:45.304 - if you need a form, you can stop by our office as well. And then the last day to file for candidacy 00:10:45.304 --> 00:10:47.518 - is going to be February 6 by noon. 00:10:49.602 --> 00:10:55.955 - I just wanted to say this, Kylie, if I can dovetail just one thing that you said with respect to the 00:10:55.955 --> 00:11:02.559 - inactive voters. I don't want anybody who is inactive to be concerned. All that you have to do to become 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:09.038 - active is vote. So if you haven't voted because you only like to vote in particular elections, all you 00:11:09.038 --> 00:11:15.391 - have to do is show up this year and vote, and that will automatically take your status from inactive 00:11:15.391 --> 00:11:19.102 - to active. Just wanted to say that for the viewing public. 00:11:19.234 --> 00:11:31.839 - Of course. All right. New business then. V-Stop. I'm assuming, Kylie, are you doing that as well? Yes. 00:11:31.839 --> 00:11:38.814 - So I took part of a program called Seats through V-Stop. 00:11:38.914 --> 00:11:53.357 - I think it would be a great experience to do a post-election audit here in Monroe County after the general 00:11:53.357 --> 00:12:04.830 - election of twenty twenty six- this will open up some transparency and to allow the- 00:12:05.058 --> 00:12:13.970 - trust of the voters in Monroe County with what we do in our office and the. Accuracy of our voting machines 00:12:13.970 --> 00:12:22.386 - and I just wanted to bring this up I know that two of our members got to talk with the stop well miss 00:12:22.386 --> 00:12:23.294 - Brown has. 00:12:23.650 --> 00:12:31.309 - been able to hear over the past couple of years about post-election audits and I think we're in a good 00:12:31.309 --> 00:12:38.820 - spot to do one and just wanted to get the discussion rolling now and then get approval from you guys 00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:46.553 - to invite VSTOP to do a presentation at the next meeting. VSTOP is an incredible supporter of elections 00:12:46.553 --> 00:12:47.966 - in Indiana and the 00:12:48.962 --> 00:12:57.904 - I feel that I have warmed up to V-Stop over the years. There was some friction, I think, when they first 00:12:57.904 --> 00:13:01.310 - rolled out, but there's some incredible 00:13:01.794 --> 00:13:08.879 - members of the VSTOP team that we get to speak with when we attend clerk conferences, election conferences. 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:15.505 - And so I am actually looking forward to the idea of them coming in, guiding us through an audit. And 00:13:15.505 --> 00:13:22.065 - so with that, I would make a motion, Mr. Chair, to invite the VSTOP team to the February meeting of 00:13:22.065 --> 00:13:29.150 - the Monroe County Election Board. A second. We have a motion and a second. Is there discussion of any type? 00:13:29.506 --> 00:13:36.122 - I'd like to point out that VSTOP stands for voting system technical oversight program. That was going 00:13:36.122 --> 00:13:42.609 - to be my next comment for those who don't know what it means to find that. So that's helpful. And I 00:13:42.609 --> 00:13:49.549 - think when you took me over to chat with them, they said they would pick out three races. Is that correct? 00:13:49.549 --> 00:13:56.166 - So it would be you, the election board, that will pick out three races that we specifically focus on. 00:13:56.166 --> 00:13:57.982 - And then we would then do a 00:13:59.234 --> 00:14:05.385 - It's a portion of the ballot, so they'll do a sampling of it to then get an accuracy. And they really 00:14:05.385 --> 00:14:11.656 - strive to hit that 90%. And we'll just continue until we hit that. And then we'll have the results that 00:14:11.656 --> 00:14:17.686 - we can send out. It'll also be a press release so that anybody of the public is allowed to be there 00:14:17.686 --> 00:14:23.958 - to view this. We'll invite press out and just make sure that it's an event that anybody is able to come 00:14:23.958 --> 00:14:27.998 - to and that they feel comfortable coming to to be able to view it. 00:14:30.722 --> 00:14:40.004 - All right then. Those in favor of inviting them for February, aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We'll 00:14:40.004 --> 00:14:49.195 - invite them. So Kylie, go ahead and work on inviting them to the February meeting. Let's see. I guess 00:14:49.195 --> 00:14:54.782 - any comment on new business, and that's all we had currently. 00:14:54.914 --> 00:15:02.402 - then let's move into old business. So Mr. Crider, you are up for election central project update. Good 00:15:02.402 --> 00:15:09.818 - afternoon, board members. Richard Crider, Monroe County Building and Fleet Department, tech services. 00:15:09.818 --> 00:15:17.234 - Would you mind to pull up the photographs, please? Oh, there they are right there. OK, I brought some 00:15:17.234 --> 00:15:23.486 - photos I wanted to share of the progress of the construction over a showers building. 00:15:23.682 --> 00:15:31.133 - and they've been busy away. All the demos finished basically except some old internet cable removal 00:15:31.133 --> 00:15:38.584 - and that type of thing. They are now framing walls. You can walk in there and you can tell, you can 00:15:38.584 --> 00:15:46.407 - basically tell what room is what now. This view right here is from the east side of the building looking 00:15:46.407 --> 00:15:50.878 - west and this is basically early voting, this entire space. 00:15:51.042 --> 00:16:01.175 - There's a lot of square footage there. Next photo, please. This one is... That's the early voting space. 00:16:01.175 --> 00:16:11.211 - That's kind of, not early voting, I'm sorry, Election Central. If you walk through there, it's all laid 00:16:11.211 --> 00:16:20.958 - out into the Election Central office spaces. Next photo. That's the ballot room. Next photo, please. 00:16:22.594 --> 00:16:31.105 - server room. Is that all the photos? OK, that's the maintenance slash storage room. I believe that's 00:16:31.105 --> 00:16:39.532 - the last photo. So anyway, I just kind of want to give you guys a visual of what it looks like over 00:16:39.532 --> 00:16:48.127 - there. It's progressing well, and I don't anticipate any issues hitting that deadline date. I do want 00:16:48.127 --> 00:16:51.582 - to update you on another matter, though. 00:16:52.098 --> 00:16:59.473 - I believe I brought this up at the last meeting, but we had a water heater break in the Johnson building 00:16:59.473 --> 00:17:06.497 - and it's created a lot of problems thrown some big curveballs. And basically what's happened is the 00:17:06.497 --> 00:17:10.430 - space next to voters registration, which is occupied by 00:17:10.530 --> 00:17:17.630 - probation juvenile division was ground zero for the flood and it's a mess. So basically they have five 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:24.730 - staff members, clients all day. It's in disarray down there. And I think what we want to do is we want 00:17:24.730 --> 00:17:31.761 - to go ahead and move voters registration over to showers building earlier than what we planned on. We 00:17:31.761 --> 00:17:37.758 - have a nice large suite that's located just above election central that'll accommodate 00:17:37.890 --> 00:17:46.277 - the staff and their operations sufficiently. And what I wanna do is I wanna relocate them to showers 00:17:46.277 --> 00:17:54.664 - and that will open up the current voters registration space for the probation juvenile staff to move 00:17:54.664 --> 00:18:03.134 - over, set up operations in there because it's still in pretty good shape. And then we can go through, 00:18:03.394 --> 00:18:10.609 - tear out all the, do all the demo, do all the things you have to do to rebuild that office, 00:18:10.609 --> 00:18:18.765 - it'll be empty. These guys will be in 203 above election central. We were working on a calendar earlier 00:18:18.765 --> 00:18:26.843 - in the week and we think that February 9th is the target date to do that, to make that move. I've been 00:18:26.843 --> 00:18:32.254 - working with tech services, we're gonna be able to provide temporary 00:18:32.866 --> 00:18:40.268 - technical support up there. Miss Kylie's kind of already been looking at the area, game planning on 00:18:40.268 --> 00:18:47.967 - location of staff, that kind of thing. And I'll be working with her this month to make sure we're ready 00:18:47.967 --> 00:18:55.665 - to make that move. Do you have any questions? That's the Monday after thing closes, correct? So that'll 00:18:55.665 --> 00:18:59.070 - be the Monday after we sat down and looked at 00:18:59.330 --> 00:19:06.569 - calendar wise to see where deadlines were. So that'll be that final deadline. And then we will do the 00:19:06.569 --> 00:19:14.020 - transition of moving over to showers. Our staff is starting to look at materials and getting stuff boxed 00:19:14.020 --> 00:19:21.188 - up, which with the flood, most of it was already boxed up. So we won't have too much to take care of 00:19:21.188 --> 00:19:29.278 - packing wise. And I met with Criter this morning with Soft Touch moving and they're looking at potentially having 00:19:29.410 --> 00:19:36.637 - that as the moving from the current space to the temporary space. Do we need a motion to do that? We 00:19:36.637 --> 00:19:44.008 - don't then. No, for them to move on that date, which is a different date than we talked about. I mean, 00:19:44.008 --> 00:19:51.665 - I'm fine with that. We originally were planning on June. I want to make sure we don't we don't do anything 00:19:51.665 --> 00:19:56.030 - that somebody comes back says he didn't do it the right way. 00:19:56.450 --> 00:20:03.171 - No, this is mainly just an update to get everybody caught up, but also for it to be public. So this 00:20:03.171 --> 00:20:09.758 - is the first that public's going to be hearing that we're moving earlier. Plans are to work with. 00:20:09.922 --> 00:20:16.981 - criteria on getting signage and stuff set up for the current space for to direct people to the new space 00:20:16.981 --> 00:20:24.309 - but also my plan is next Tuesday when I go to County Council making a public statement there as a department 00:20:24.309 --> 00:20:31.098 - update and then also going to a commissioner meeting to do a department update there as well just to 00:20:31.098 --> 00:20:38.157 - make sure that as many people are notified as possible. I'm just going to take that as information we're 00:20:38.157 --> 00:20:39.838 - going to move early that 00:20:40.418 --> 00:20:48.279 - yep okay earlier than we planned yeah we're trying to make a little lemonade here where everybody sees 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:56.215 - it anyway so yeah all right thank you very much you're welcome thank you all right CFA for filings okay 00:20:56.215 --> 00:21:04.152 - so in your guys's packet you'll find a list that list is the same list that I had presented to you guys 00:21:04.152 --> 00:21:10.334 - at the last meeting the ones that are in red still have not filed with us one of 00:21:10.530 --> 00:21:18.135 - Uh, one of those individuals did receive the certified letter. The other two have not received the certified 00:21:18.135 --> 00:21:25.251 - letter. Um, I'm wanting to get clarification to, and approval to send out a second set of letters, or 00:21:25.251 --> 00:21:32.507 - if you would like me to handle this in a different manner. You were to handle it in a different manner. 00:21:32.507 --> 00:21:39.902 - What would that be? Thank you. And in the past, um, we have done phone calls and emails directly to them. 00:21:40.130 --> 00:21:46.935 - in addition to the second letter, so that there is a formal letter saying this is what we need, but 00:21:46.935 --> 00:21:53.944 - then also reaching out to them by phone call and email. I do want to comment that last year, I believe 00:21:53.944 --> 00:22:00.748 - it was in February, I sent two certified letters with return receipt requested and I still have not 00:22:00.748 --> 00:22:07.689 - gotten the return receipt after almost a year. Yeah. The other thing that I have no issue with in the 00:22:07.689 --> 00:22:08.574 - past, I have 00:22:09.346 --> 00:22:17.378 - offered if it wasn't able to be delivered. I have hand delivered so that they could have that information 00:22:17.378 --> 00:22:25.411 - and I would be willing to do that again. I will say that one of these individuals on here who did receive 00:22:25.411 --> 00:22:32.382 - the letter and that we got back the confirmation has came into our office but has not filed 00:22:38.626 --> 00:22:48.175 - but they wouldn't have come into the office if they hadn't received the letter so they know they need 00:22:48.175 --> 00:22:57.723 - to file. Correct. I move that Kylie do a second letter with follow-up emails and phone calls to these 00:22:57.723 --> 00:23:07.646 - to the two individuals that we do not have a confirmation on. I would second that. Are we talking about a 00:23:07.778 --> 00:23:15.810 - Another certified letter. Yes, so that there's proof of delivery. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I just 00:23:15.810 --> 00:23:23.842 - this just. Be funnels me as to why this stuff is such a problem for some people. I mean, yeah. So yes, 00:23:23.842 --> 00:23:31.874 - so we have a motion in a second for a second letter. An email if you have an email address and a phone 00:23:31.874 --> 00:23:37.566 - call, OK? And then you report back to us in February. How that went, OK? 00:23:37.666 --> 00:23:47.169 - works for me. Which with the annual filing deadline coming up for this past year, it could potentially 00:23:47.169 --> 00:23:56.488 - be that they have a second or third late filing as well if they do not file on January 21st by noon. 00:23:56.488 --> 00:24:07.006 - All right. Those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries for that. And now the polling location update. 00:24:07.426 --> 00:24:13.330 - All right, so then you guys have a third piece of paper in there. That's going to be the largest one 00:24:13.330 --> 00:24:19.235 - that has the polling locations on it. The ones that are highlighted in yellow have confirmed with us 00:24:19.235 --> 00:24:25.139 - that they would like to be a polling location for 2026. The ones that are in white have not. I would 00:24:25.139 --> 00:24:31.102 - like to know how you guys want me to move forward with these. Would you like me to start reaching out 00:24:31.102 --> 00:24:34.142 - phone calls versus just the letters that were sent? 00:24:36.322 --> 00:24:43.848 - Once we get this back after the county council meeting, I also will be expecting that we try to get 00:24:43.848 --> 00:24:51.375 - these approved at the February meeting. I certainly think it would be helpful to follow up with the 00:24:51.375 --> 00:24:59.202 - phone calls. And so if you need a motion, that would be my motion. I would think a phone call you would 00:24:59.202 --> 00:25:05.374 - a letter gets delivered and it gets laid on someone's desk and nobody gets to it. 00:25:05.666 --> 00:25:15.493 - And you need to be able to get this tightened down. So I have a motion and we have second. Second. Okay. 00:25:15.493 --> 00:25:24.852 - So those in favor of Kylie doing a phone call to these to those in favor of a phone call from Kylie 00:25:24.852 --> 00:25:33.182 - to these locations. Aye. Aye. Opposed. Motion carries. I have some questions about this. 00:25:33.634 --> 00:25:41.277 - Sure. Spreadsheet. Sure, go ahead. I appreciate having this in advance and I really, really do. Would 00:25:41.277 --> 00:25:49.070 - it be possible to get it for me to have a large map showing all the precincts so that I understand what 00:25:49.070 --> 00:25:56.937 - precincts, I mean, it comes up really small on my computer, you know, to see where, you know, who you're 00:25:56.937 --> 00:26:02.782 - sending where. So through TSD, could we ask them or somebody to pronounce it? 00:26:02.946 --> 00:26:10.047 - one in your office yes I have some in my office I think I have an extra one in my office I'll have to 00:26:10.047 --> 00:26:17.078 - look if I do you can I'll send you an email or a text message you can just stop by and pick it up if 00:26:17.078 --> 00:26:24.457 - I don't I'll get a hold of GIS to have them print one through TSD okay also somebody called me and talked 00:26:24.457 --> 00:26:27.102 - to me about this they said that for a 00:26:27.266 --> 00:26:34.368 - Richland 9 precinct, which apparently is a very small, what, 10 registered voters or something like 00:26:34.368 --> 00:26:41.754 - that? Yeah. Depending on whether it's just a city of Bloomington election or county-wide election, they 00:26:41.754 --> 00:26:49.140 - get moved back and forth between two different polling places. Would it be possible just to always have 00:26:49.140 --> 00:26:55.390 - them vote, the people from Richland 9, always have them vote at Highland Park that way? 00:26:55.522 --> 00:27:01.894 - that's inside the city of Bloomington. And so they would always, they would always vote at the same 00:27:01.894 --> 00:27:08.393 - location. So I will say that we, um, and my office have taken all of the polling locations and all of 00:27:08.393 --> 00:27:14.829 - the precincts and have done a complete cleanup of these, um, by statue, all of the polling locations 00:27:14.829 --> 00:27:18.142 - that go to the same precinct must touch each other. 00:27:18.274 --> 00:27:25.445 - We, when doing some research back, there was a couple of polling locations that had a precinct that 00:27:25.445 --> 00:27:32.902 - was not touching the other precincts, so we had cleaned that up. This is the new list. Richland 9, with 00:27:32.902 --> 00:27:38.782 - that situation, I will have to look to see where we can do some switching because 00:27:40.546 --> 00:27:48.818 - I will say these polling locations are going to have quite a few registered voters at every single one 00:27:48.818 --> 00:27:57.332 - of them. Even with the 29 polling locations, we're still looking at some pretty large numbers at Highland 00:27:57.332 --> 00:28:05.363 - Park and St. John's. Right. Right. And then also, you've got the cost listed here for what it would 00:28:05.363 --> 00:28:08.094 - take to staff these things. Yeah. 00:28:08.322 --> 00:28:18.029 - the training costs for these individuals and also the meal stipends. They're just, that's just election 00:28:18.029 --> 00:28:27.550 - day and just their per diem for working at that polling location that day. I realized after I printed 00:28:27.550 --> 00:28:35.390 - that I printed the ones that had the budget information on them as well. All right. 00:28:41.986 --> 00:28:50.209 - Thank you. Anything else from any board member on any? I have several items, if I could. Sure, go ahead. 00:28:50.209 --> 00:28:58.276 - So last month, Clerk Brown said she was going to connect with the folks at Heart InterCivic about what 00:28:58.276 --> 00:29:06.264 - the timeline was for getting printers. Were you able to connect with them? I was able to connect with 00:29:06.264 --> 00:29:11.198 - them. I shared that information with Kylie. There was a piece. 00:29:11.906 --> 00:29:19.302 - When I told him what you said versus what Kylie said, there was a piece that you had left out of the 00:29:19.302 --> 00:29:26.991 - conversation. So what he had told Kylie was the correct timeline. And they are in the process of getting 00:29:26.991 --> 00:29:34.534 - the printers, the scanner certified with the state. And so Kylie's timeline was correct. Of one to two 00:29:34.534 --> 00:29:35.486 - months? Yes. 00:29:35.714 --> 00:29:43.149 - I took very copious notes, so I wonder what he thinks I left out. You know what? God bless you and him 00:29:43.149 --> 00:29:50.800 - with that. I spoke to him. I know what he told me, and that's what we're sticking with, that the election 00:29:50.800 --> 00:29:58.668 - supervisor was correct in what she advised in a previous election board meeting. Thank you. OK. I appreciate 00:29:58.668 --> 00:30:05.598 - the follow-up. Since election operations or election central will now be where early voting is, 00:30:05.794 --> 00:30:13.493 - for the primary, even, in addition to the general. I know in the past, past elections, when early voting 00:30:13.493 --> 00:30:21.045 - occurred at election central, the staff staggered their start and stop times to make it easier to have 00:30:21.045 --> 00:30:28.671 - the supervision. And I was under the impression, maybe I'm wrong, but then we didn't need quite as much 00:30:28.671 --> 00:30:35.710 - in the way of election, some of the supervisory staff. So I was wondering if that would be able 00:30:35.842 --> 00:30:42.685 - if we'd be able to do that now, especially given the concern that we have with the budgets. So the early 00:30:42.685 --> 00:30:49.203 - voting space and the voter registration space will be in the same building. They will not be in the 00:30:49.203 --> 00:30:55.785 - same space like they will be after the primary. So we will still be in two different areas. So voter 00:30:55.785 --> 00:31:02.563 - registration will be upstairs where early voting will be downstairs. But in addition to that, even with 00:31:02.563 --> 00:31:05.822 - us being in that new space, voter registration is 00:31:05.986 --> 00:31:13.113 - very separate from early voting. But you're right on site as opposed to a separate location. Correct. 00:31:13.113 --> 00:31:20.520 - There's only one person that goes to early voting from the voter registration staff. I was led to believe 00:31:20.520 --> 00:31:27.508 - that in the past, there would be one staff member that would be there at the start, and another one 00:31:27.508 --> 00:31:32.958 - would come in like two hours later. We do that. Yeah. We've always done that. 00:31:33.186 --> 00:31:39.557 - We have one person that goes down during the day, and then another person that goes down in the afternoon. 00:31:39.557 --> 00:31:46.047 - OK. Yep. Great. All right. Just again, looking to try to help save some money here, because that's important 00:31:46.047 --> 00:31:52.537 - for all of us. I mean, we also have to remember that the voter registration staff only has five individuals, 00:31:52.537 --> 00:31:58.669 - two part-time, two full-time, and myself. And that's already very short once we get into the election. 00:31:58.669 --> 00:32:02.718 - So with us losing one individual to be at early voting, we're still 00:32:03.426 --> 00:32:10.725 - I mean, we're there as long as we have to be there. And as soon as we can get out of there, we're out 00:32:10.725 --> 00:32:18.095 - of there. The clerk alluded to the training that we all went to, which I learned a lot, really learned 00:32:18.095 --> 00:32:25.394 - a lot at the Administrators Conference. One of the things we heard was about doing tabletop exercises 00:32:25.394 --> 00:32:32.478 - to plan for disasters. Will Mr. Shields and I be allowed to or be invited to participate in those? 00:32:33.058 --> 00:32:40.310 - So I know last year, the Secretary of State and Indiana Homeland Security actually hosted in 2026. 00:32:40.310 --> 00:32:47.635 - I mean, 2024, they hosted some roundtable discussions and they invited the election board and clerk 00:32:47.635 --> 00:32:54.814 - and voter registration staff to go to those. I don't know if they have any plans for any in 2026. 00:32:54.914 --> 00:33:02.739 - I have not been made aware of tabletop exercises for 2026. It certainly would not surprise me that was 00:33:02.739 --> 00:33:11.019 - a successful, excuse me, a successful event you and I attended as well as the emergency management director. 00:33:11.019 --> 00:33:18.692 - And it turned out that one of those tabletop exercises really could have mirrored what happened with 00:33:18.692 --> 00:33:23.934 - the cybersecurity breach and everything. So we got some really good, 00:33:25.634 --> 00:33:32.808 - information for that. Information for that and guidance for that. So I would certainly bring back to 00:33:32.808 --> 00:33:39.912 - the board's attention should I hear that the Secretary of State is hosting a tabletop exercise, but 00:33:39.912 --> 00:33:47.086 - I am not aware of one at this time. Do we have our own within the county for things? Because another 00:33:47.086 --> 00:33:54.545 - thing that I heard about that had an impact on me was that we have to do planning for disasters, whether 00:33:54.545 --> 00:33:55.326 - it's human 00:33:56.098 --> 00:34:03.280 - paused or environmental, and that we have to have a way to both ensure that staff is safe and can be 00:34:03.280 --> 00:34:10.675 - evacuated, but also we have to plan for voters getting ballots to where they need to be and things like 00:34:10.675 --> 00:34:17.786 - that. So, and it was my understanding that we would be involved in some of that, that we have to be 00:34:17.786 --> 00:34:18.782 - ready for it. 00:34:19.522 --> 00:34:27.467 - myself, Molly and Jamie last year put together an emergency plan. And that's what we use and distribute 00:34:27.467 --> 00:34:35.641 - to the poll workers. It's a, I want to say it's a front and back piece of paper that is just like detailed 00:34:35.641 --> 00:34:43.357 - information of in case of this type of an emergency, these are the procedures you need to take 2024, 00:34:43.357 --> 00:34:48.094 - sorry, not 2025. No, I know. Yeah. Yeah. But, but still that, 00:34:48.290 --> 00:34:56.685 - doesn't tell me how we accommodate voters to ensure that we get ballots to where moved, that people 00:34:56.685 --> 00:35:05.164 - know where they can go vote if there's a polling place that's shut down. I think Molly's looking for 00:35:05.164 --> 00:35:14.398 - it. But I would say probably it would be us giving that document that was created during 2024 to the election 00:35:14.498 --> 00:35:21.227 - and then if there was anything that you guys wanted to discuss and look over, then I would say it'd 00:35:21.227 --> 00:35:27.956 - probably be something we add to an agenda if there's any amendments that need to be made. Yeah, I'm 00:35:27.956 --> 00:35:34.686 - with you on the emergency stuff that we talked about up there. So, but if you have something you've 00:35:34.686 --> 00:35:41.886 - done in the past, I don't see any reason to reinvent that. If that was set up and that would take care of, 00:35:41.986 --> 00:35:48.768 - as she said, getting ballast to people where they need to. Dig that one up and let us look at it. Yeah, 00:35:48.768 --> 00:35:55.550 - because I remember in it we had created a plan if there was a natural disaster such as a tornado, where 00:35:55.550 --> 00:36:02.201 - a backup location would be. We had talked about talking to the public libraries here in Monroe County 00:36:02.201 --> 00:36:08.918 - and seeing if any of them would be OK with us using them as an emergency location, since most of those 00:36:08.918 --> 00:36:11.070 - are pretty well-known locations. 00:36:11.234 --> 00:36:19.498 - We also had talked about here at the courthouse, but I don't know how far that conversation went for 00:36:19.498 --> 00:36:27.926 - turning this into a satellite location on election day in the case of an emergency. It did not go far. 00:36:27.926 --> 00:36:36.191 - Perhaps they would be willing to revisit that. It did not go far at the time. In my mind, and I know 00:36:36.191 --> 00:36:41.182 - that it's still a hot button issue here, but in planning for 00:36:41.506 --> 00:36:48.745 - Disasters, I continue to believe that vote centers would help if there were any kind of disaster that 00:36:48.745 --> 00:36:55.985 - had to be addressed because you don't have to move ballots. People can quickly find out where all the 00:36:55.985 --> 00:37:03.295 - other vote centers in the county are to get to. And so you're not having to worry about whether people 00:37:03.295 --> 00:37:11.102 - who attempted to vote actually got that right. And so to me, that's another argument for having vote centers. 00:37:11.394 --> 00:37:18.614 - Here's the truth. We are facing elections where we will not have voting centers in 2026. If you want 00:37:18.614 --> 00:37:25.835 - to talk about planning for emergencies and disasters, we need to plan for the locations that we have 00:37:25.835 --> 00:37:33.126 - and the precincts that we have. We do not have vote centers. I realize that I'm saying that I believe 00:37:33.126 --> 00:37:40.990 - that this is another argument for having vote centers in Monroe County because it would be a way to ensure or 00:37:41.346 --> 00:37:48.623 - be more assured that voters who wish to vote had that chance to do it in the event of a disaster. I 00:37:48.623 --> 00:37:56.263 - will say our plan is very thorough on that with creating a satellite location in the event of emergency. 00:37:56.263 --> 00:38:03.904 - It's easily set up. Bob White and his team is excellent at taking care of situations in very time, small 00:38:03.904 --> 00:38:10.526 - time crunches. And we're very lucky to have him and his team. They've done excellent work. 00:38:10.722 --> 00:38:17.116 - with those satellite locations. We don't have to worry about transporting the ballots anywhere. We just 00:38:17.116 --> 00:38:23.264 - set up like we are at election day. We just take the equipment to whatever the location is going to 00:38:23.264 --> 00:38:29.412 - be. We get a hold of Jamie. She sends out a text message on the Monroe County text alerts. And then 00:38:29.412 --> 00:38:35.991 - we would then contact TSD to have them post stuff on the website. And then if they're calling our offices, 00:38:35.991 --> 00:38:38.942 - it's easy for us to say, OK, yes, this location 00:38:39.138 --> 00:38:48.710 - is now being relocated to this location, and it will be a satellite location where they can easily get 00:38:48.710 --> 00:38:57.260 - their ballot printed and casted there at that moment. One of the other things that happened 00:38:57.260 --> 00:39:07.390 - at the administrators training was they give out awards. They give out an election board member of the year. 00:39:07.938 --> 00:39:14.998 - which went to Yvette, I think it was Runkle from Huntington County. And what they flashed up on this 00:39:14.998 --> 00:39:22.337 - screen is that this is given to the election board members whose service embodies bipartisan cooperation 00:39:22.337 --> 00:39:29.607 - in the administration of the election process and whose achievement is to represent one political party 00:39:29.607 --> 00:39:34.430 - while serving all county voters. And so again, for me, this would be 00:39:35.554 --> 00:39:45.581 - another reason to work together on getting vote centers. Thank you. Thank you. General public comment. 00:39:45.581 --> 00:39:55.900 - I just want to public comment about everything that you're talking about. I have one for the other thing, 00:39:55.900 --> 00:40:05.246 - but again, Cheryl Langdon, I totally understand what you're saying about how vote centers would 00:40:05.570 --> 00:40:14.014 - I get that. I totally get that. I worked with microwave systems, communication systems concerning the 00:40:14.014 --> 00:40:22.458 - satellite and all of that. So I understand how all of that can work. But again, people are, it's hard 00:40:22.458 --> 00:40:30.902 - to direct people. It's hard to, in an emergency situation, people are in panic. They're freaking out. 00:40:30.902 --> 00:40:34.462 - So I get the boat centers being kind of a, 00:40:34.914 --> 00:40:43.339 - a good solid foundation that prevents all the complicated things that can happen. Technology, how many 00:40:43.339 --> 00:40:51.846 - times has it screwed up? So it can go both ways, paradoxically, I get it. So she's right and he's right 00:40:51.846 --> 00:41:00.353 - and I get it. And everyone in this room is probably right in some way, shape or form in every scenario. 00:41:00.353 --> 00:41:03.134 - So I agree, I mean, vote centers, 00:41:04.066 --> 00:41:15.607 - might actually help in situations like that. But it's not perfect, so that was my little two cents. 00:41:15.607 --> 00:41:27.033 - So was that for your general comment or was that? That was for the last thing, so general comment. 00:41:27.033 --> 00:41:33.150 - Go ahead. I appreciate you letting me speak on that. 00:41:34.594 --> 00:41:41.991 - Again, Cheryl Langdon. So every single month I show up to talk about the unmitigated corruption of the 00:41:41.991 --> 00:41:49.819 - crime organization called the Democratic Party. The level of outrageous lies, hypocrisy, and open corruption 00:41:49.819 --> 00:41:54.846 - by the private political organization is traitorous and unforgivable. 00:41:55.106 --> 00:42:01.623 - Democrat states like Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, California, and so on have demonstrated that 00:42:01.623 --> 00:42:06.558 - their elected Democrat leaders will turn a blind eye to their own corruption, 00:42:06.626 --> 00:42:13.245 - while they push good citizens into states like Indiana as tax refugees seeking shelter from the Democratic 00:42:13.245 --> 00:42:19.617 - Party's policies, as their corrupt leadership allowed their legal citizens to be robbed at knife point 00:42:19.617 --> 00:42:26.422 - in public spaces by violent criminals, and while they sleep in their beds, as they are put under a microscope 00:42:26.422 --> 00:42:30.814 - by the IRS concerning their own personal spending. Are you kidding me? 00:42:31.074 --> 00:42:37.644 - A friend of mine in California who voted for Trump asked for other people's opinion about Trump's name 00:42:37.644 --> 00:42:44.023 - on the Kennedy Center. I gave mine as a person who did not vote for Trump in 2024. I said a name on 00:42:44.023 --> 00:42:50.530 - a building doesn't mean anything to me. It is temporary. It's as temporary as the next dark turd that 00:42:50.530 --> 00:42:51.678 - sits in my colon. 00:42:52.130 --> 00:42:58.366 - The Kennedy family turned on RFK jr. And the only people who give a crap about the timing of the name 00:42:58.366 --> 00:43:04.602 - change on that building are people who are million stable and who have committed worst crimes against 00:43:04.602 --> 00:43:10.776 - me and my nation They committed treason over and over and they won't stop until the United States is 00:43:10.776 --> 00:43:14.750 - destroyed They can't judge Trump. They have no moral high ground 00:43:14.882 --> 00:43:21.413 - I wouldn't care if he hired 100 bulldozers and piled down every single monument in D.C., knocked the 00:43:21.413 --> 00:43:28.009 - Statue of Liberty into the Hudson, and dumped 10,000 tons of horse manure into the reflecting pool in 00:43:28.009 --> 00:43:34.540 - front of the Lincoln Memorial. Know why? Most Americans will never get the opportunity to ever visit 00:43:34.540 --> 00:43:36.286 - those locations. Know why? 00:43:36.610 --> 00:43:42.893 - because hardworking Americans are too busy being the slaves for entitled, rich, corrupt politicians 00:43:42.893 --> 00:43:49.490 - and their immediate circle of friends who have benefited from the lives of those struggling, hardworking 00:43:49.490 --> 00:43:56.151 - Americans. And that includes many in this very room and those listening to this meeting. So those things, 00:43:56.151 --> 00:43:57.470 - none of them matter. 00:43:58.018 --> 00:44:04.853 - They are as useless as the decaying ruins of the Roman Empire, all just tourist attractions for those 00:44:04.853 --> 00:44:12.023 - who manage to crawl out of their small lives to reach beyond themselves despite the dirty rotten privilege 00:44:12.023 --> 00:44:19.126 - elected dirtbags. There, my opinion. Screw every Democrat who believes their lives are any more important 00:44:19.126 --> 00:44:22.878 - than any other, especially those of the MAGA Americans. 00:44:24.258 --> 00:44:32.289 - It doesn't matter in the end. I say punch them all in the face, Mr. President. Traders deserve no quarter. 00:44:32.289 --> 00:44:40.096 - Somalis stealing $9 billion. Crickets from the Democrats. But me getting a bank deposit of $600 or more 00:44:40.096 --> 00:44:47.602 - under Biden's Democrat regime in 2021. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. I just got one sentence. Report 00:44:47.602 --> 00:44:53.982 - it immediately or pay a penalty. That's what I heard. So drain the swamp. Thank you. 00:44:56.802 --> 00:45:05.697 - Motion to adjourn. Seconded. Those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. This meeting is adjourned. 00:45:05.697 --> 00:45:10.494 - We will meet again on February 9th at 1.30. Thank you.