And I have 1.30. We're not sure the chime is going to chime anymore, so I will call the February 2026
election board meeting to order. I'm going to make a motion that we adjust the agenda so that Mr. Kreider
can make his presentation, because I think he wants to get back over to where the work's going on. I
will second that motion. All right. Well, unanimous, go ahead. Mr. Kreider, you're on.
Thank you for that. Unfortunately, this week I don't have any pictures, but I think you guys have all
been on site recently. Right now, all the drywalls installed and finished, ceiling grids going in next
week, crews are in doing the prep work for flooring. That'll start anytime.
We have the the date delivery dates been extended a bit to May 6th, but I do have confirmation from
from crews that that May 6 date is like finalizing punch list items than that kind of thing But the
space will be available for events happening on May 3rd and May 10th No issues there Furniture I've been
working with the contractor on that. And my message to the furniture contractor is that it's critical
that we have the early voting pieces by April 1. I don't feel under the same time constraints for the
voter's registration. So it probably will happen in a couple of phases. But I don't think they'll be
that far apart. Yeah. And we're moving on Monday to 203. So everything.
Richard, I want to clarify, it's March, not May. Yeah, March, sorry. Everything is, yeah. We're rocking
and rolling. So any questions? It looked good the other day when we were down there, so. Yeah, all right.
I'm just getting geared up for Monday. Yeah. Right? Yeah. So if we just say, OK, you can go back to
work, right? Yeah. OK. All right. Thank you.
All right, now the approval of the minutes from the January meeting. I will make a motion to approve
the minutes from the January meeting. Any questions, any comments? Okay, we will consider them approved.
Clerk's update. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It was a busy week this week, legislative wise. I went
Monday to testify at the Senate Elections Committee, came home, hurried up and got an overnight back
together and went up for the AIC conference, but we also had a clerk's breakout session, and I also
testified at the House Elections Committee hearing. We are at the place in the legislative session where
bills are switching houses, so a bill that was initiated in
The House will now move over to the Senate, and a bill that was initiated in the Senate will now move
over to the House for consideration. So I just wanted to give you some bill numbers to keep an eye on
that are moving. If I don't bring it up, it's probably dead. So House Bill 1055, which is the option
to move municipal elections to even years, that is scheduled
In the Senate, it will be scheduled for a hearing by the head of the Senate committee. I can't talk.
campaign finance reports of local candidates. That is moving along and has been referred to Senate elections.
I'm very proud of the fact that we were already doing in Monroe County what they are asking all clerks
to do, which is to post those campaign finance reports on the county website.
House Bill 1359 is the clerk's priority legislation. I have testified on that. And it is moving along,
very grateful to the bill's authors on behalf of the Clerk's Association. And that will allow us to,
where early voting will mirror election day because the voter is the last person to touch
their ballot. We are very, very excited about that as a clerks association. House Bill 1377 repeals
the provisions that would prohibit counting straight party votes for candidates. I'll try to do this
in the one minute format. If you vote straight party, but then you'd want to go on and vote for an at
large race where you can vote for no more than three
People were finding themselves in a world of hurt in that you might be straight party Republican, but
your neighbor who's running for dog catcher is Democrat. So if you try to vote straight party, but then
vote for your neighbor, then that at large would be four votes.
the three you wanted for being straight party Republican and then you have selected your neighbors being
the opposite party. And so that was something actually ironically that the Monroe County clerk discovered
the previous Monroe County clerk discovered about 10 or 11 years ago and every vendor couldn't do it.
And so that that bill is moving on trying to figure out a way to make sure that
The voter intent is recognized that we are always looking out for what the voter wanted to do. And we
don't want it to result in under voting because that became the problem. People were just being told
to vote for who they wanted in that at large and not mess it up any other way. Well, that's costing
some people some votes on both sides of the aisle. So certainly not anything where it happens with just
one party.
Senate Bill 12, the prohibition of ranked choice voting in Indiana. It's always been very clear, at
least when I've been up at the state house, that that was not something that was palatable to the state
house. And so this just puts in writing and it's moving along that there will likely never be ranked
choice voting in the state of Indiana.
Senate bill 112 that just went before the house yesterday authored by Senator Schmidt that provides
that when an individual files a notice of withdrawal and lists their address and it is different from
the one when they filed for candidacy clerks can then use that updated information to update the voters
individual
voter registration record so that it is the same as the address that they listed on the withdrawal.
Senate Bill 113, also I testified on that bill yesterday. That is where they are requesting that certain
election material be preserved for 60 months as opposed to the current 22 months.
The controversy there is most clerks have no room at the end in terms of storing materials for five
years as opposed to two years. It's trying to align it with the federal schedule. And so I believe that
Chairman Wesco is holding that bill in hopes of getting an amendment to address that concern.
The cancellation of a caucus, this is Senate Bill 211. Essentially, if a caucus meeting can be rescinded,
if only one candidate is seeking to fill that vacancy, then there's no need to have a caucus that has
been referred to the House, but it was not on yesterday's agenda I anticipated coming up within the
next couple weeks.
And I think that is it in terms of legislation. This has been the fastest short session I have seen
since I have been working on the legislative committee. And so stay tuned. I'm sure I'll have some more
legislative updates for you next month. Thank you. Thank you. That kind of reminds me, Molly, this may
not be what you've worked on. What's the status of the lawsuit as far as what you're
requirement for your ID that was passed. Was there a stay on that or an injunction or are we planning
on requiring state issued IDs for early voting? I'll have to check since there's outside counsel. I
haven't been following it that well, but I will check and update the board. Kylie, what are you expecting
at this point in time? At this time, it will be that we still follow Senate Bill 10 and only accept
Indiana IDs.
That's what's going to happen. We need to make sure that that is not a find out election day, oh gosh.
That is currently how we are doing most of the training paperwork. We're going to create a secondary
template just in case if we need to flip it last minute. I don't want people to be surprised. But people
can also use passports and things too. Correct. So they could use a passport or an NDN ID. Yeah.
I just want to know where we were with that. Thank you. Okay. Election Central update. You've got a
chunk of stuff. Yes. So first up is going to be the voter list maintenance update. Our office completed
voter list maintenance this week, so we have a couple of public record requests that have been put in
to receive some walking lists. Those will be going out.
I believe tomorrow, actually. But in total, we processed 7,626 voter list maintenance records. 992 of
those stayed active. 6,385 became inactive, and 217 were canceled. And then moving forward, candidate
filing update. As of the end of day yesterday, we were up to 199 candidates.
candidate filings. That number I know has gone up today alone and will continue all the way through
noon tomorrow. And then we also have some upcoming important dates. That's going to be tomorrow, the
last day of candidate filing. But then I also have in the packets for the election board the dispatch
that goes out by the Indiana Election Division on February 4th. Sorry.
On February 13th, that'll be the last day for a candidate to withdraw from the primary. And then also
on the 13th will be the last day to file a challenge against a voter. Lastly, I have a statement that
came from Matthew Kachavar at the Indiana Election Division.
Under I see code three dash eight dash two dash five candidates for local office file with the county
election board as I understand it your county does not have a separate election board hired staff so
filings run through the circuit court clerk's office as they would be a
the only county election board members with an office. A member of the public, if they so wish, can
call up for the candidates and give them their opinion on what they see as an error in their filing.
The county election board on its own cannot reject candidate filings they think are an error. Instead,
a candidate challenge filed by a voter of the election division where a candidate is running in by noon
on February 13th is the only case that can happen in the primary candidate filings. We really can't
see the screens well enough. So cats, if somebody raises their hand on the screen to say something,
let us know because we can see them, but we can't really see them well enough to
tell if somebody's actually trying to reach in, all right? Should have done that sooner. I apologize
for that. CFA-4 filing report. That'll be me again. In the packet, you're going to find a CFA-4 filing
report that is going to have a full list of everybody who has filed or should have filed for the January
21st deadline at noon.
We do have some on there that are highlighted in red that are missing The yellow will be late and then
there is one highlighted in green that candidate closed out their committee They are still an elected
official So we need to send a letter to ask them to reopen their committee and file a CFA for I Think
we need to do with that
With that, I just need approval to send out letters to these individuals, certified letters, asking
them to either file or give them their update of either first or second late filings. I'll make that
motion. I'll second it. Discussion? Sorry. Discussion? Those in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? I do have
a question, if it's at all possible, about this. Sure.
account has indicated that she is not going to run for reelection and her election will actually for
that seat will occur this year. Do we have the authority if we were to vote on it to excuse her from
having to file that or is that a firm state requirement? That is a firm requirement and I believe that
that person was advised that when they came back to reopen their packet.
Certainly they can send somebody if they're not able to come, but they should open it until the very
last day of their candidacy unless you're breaking news today. No, I'm not breaking any news today.
I'm just saying that we know that she's not going to be running.
So that would have to be kept open until December 31st? So as of July 1st of 2025, it says that a candidate
which involves a elected official must keep their campaign open until they are no longer in office.
So instead of keeping her office open, she closed and it should have stayed open. And through January
1 of 27? Correct.
And that was a huge thing throughout the state, because the clerks were, I mean, it kind of came out
in a legislative update. We were not aware that that bill was even up for discussion. And so it took
92 clerks by 92 clerks back with having to do it. And I certainly know from staff reports that that
particular candidate was advised, was not happy,
I don't know if this, again, unless you're breaking news, I don't know if this is just an obstinate
thing or willful. I think it's a health thing. Yeah. And then in the packet, you guys also have a late
report filing tracker.
That is a new thing that I have started in the office for this filing and we went back to see where
the filings were since the new resolution that was created with the Prior election board when we cleared
out all past filing missing or late filings This is now up to date the red X's are going to be the ones
that will be added after these have been processed and gone through
So there will be one individual on there that has a second late filing and will be fined for this one.
Thank you. I don't get why they don't do that. All right. Any comments from the board? No. Okay. Then
we have a records update request.
So this is a individual, which they are here today, if you have any questions for them. They have noticed
that their voting history records indicate something that they believe is inaccurate. We have a statement
from them. And from the Indiana Election Division, we could go ahead and process this ourselves in office.
But I felt it would be best to have it in front of the election board, just so that there is a vote
on it to approve or deny. On that election, it was marked in by, manually by? Yeah, so on the documents
that I provided, you can see the difference of where there was recently from 2022 to 2024, they were
entered electronically. But then from anywhere 2020,
2020 and back was manually uploaded. So the indication is those pencil marks beside each one of the
elections is that indicates that they were manually entered instead of electronically uploaded. And
on another one of those documents, you can see how easily it could be clicked, either Democratic or
Republican, because it is a simple dropdown, and you just click which one it was. And Ms. Kiley, is
it fair to say we had done our due diligence
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean
or parties involved, no longer work in the Monroe County Clerk's Office, and so I will make a motion
that we go ahead and allow the voter registration staff to update this particular voter's voting history
record to reflect what they have stated in their statement. I will second it so we can get discussion
if there's any discussion.
like it is a one-timer from this. So do you want to say anything, Mr. Ellington? I'd just like to say
thank you for taking the opportunity to, Jeff Ellington, by the way, to correct this data error. I know
it happens not very often, but it can happen, and I appreciate you doing your due diligence to make
sure you do everything proper. Thank you. I personally hate drop-down boxes.
They are so easy to mis-do so. Is there any public discussion or comment? And then I will, those in
favor of making the change say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, Ms. Scali, would you get that adjusted?
Yeah, I'll make that change once I return to the office today. Would you let us know when that's been
completed and let them...
Yep. Thank you very much. You're welcome. OK. Whole business, what we've done, Mr. Kreider. Now we're
going to talk about the VSTOP. So you're on. Yeah. So Matt from VSTOP is here to do a presentation on
post-election audits. I brought this to the election board's attention during the conference in December
that I thought it would be a great idea to go ahead and do a post-election audit
audit after the general election this year. Matt? As Matt's coming, it's a wonderful opportunity to
thank him. I have the opportunity to see him at various conferences. Matt has been a very good friend
to Monroe County whenever it is possible to give Monroe County a shout out.
for the great work that we do here. He has been absolutely wonderful, for which I am incredibly grateful.
Most recently, I believe we saw you at the Election Administrators Conference. I'm sure we'll be seeing
you. We've got a spring Southern District Conference coming up. I'll look forward to seeing you there.
But thank you so much for making the trip. You made a little bit of a trek to see us, and so thank you
so much. Absolutely.
First off, just so everyone's aware for the record, my name is Matt Housley. I serve as the Election
Systems Audit Specialist for the Voting System Technical Oversight Program, located at Ball
State University's campus in Muncie, Indiana. While I love Ball State and I love Muncie, Indiana, I'm
really excited to be in a city and in a school where we win football games. Come on. Come on.
Say it again, sir. So I'm really excited for that. So I didn't want to take up too much time today,
but again, Kylie was enrolled in our
certificate in election administration technology and security program and was a graduate of that certificate
program. I got the chance to work with her and then of course through the Clerks Association work with
And one of the things that VSTOP does is post-election audits. And as we talked about post-election
audits with Kylie and the rest of the folks from Monroe County during the SEEDS program, I finally think
I piqued her interest in learning more. And then I had the pleasure of meeting with the county election
board informally at the election administrators conference in December. And so now they invited me here
to give a public presentation on what post-election audits look like and why they're
Monroe County should be interested in maybe looking to conduct one. Do I just say next slide on the
thing? Perfect. Next slide would be great. So a little bit about VSTOP. I thought it would be good because
some of you may not know anything about VSTOP or what VSTOP even is. And so I figured that it would
be best to just quickly introduce my team and who else I work with, and then I'll talk about VSTOP as
a whole and what we do.
As you can see there, we have two professors at Ball State University, Dr. Jay Baga and Dr. Chad Kinsella.
They serve as our executive directors and our senior research directors for the VSTOP program. Dr. Baga
has been around since 2007. He's been around since the beginning of VSTOP's inception. And Dr. Kinsella
joined the team about six or seven years ago now.
Mark serves as our program manager. He previously served at V-Stop as the certification specialist,
and then when the previous manager left, he applied and filled that role.
Austin Bilbrey is our logistic specialist. He helps us basically with everything we need to know. He
helped get me my car and my per diem and everything I needed to travel here today. Spencer
is our certification specialist. He handles all of our certification protocols and field testing for
voting systems. Duncan is our IT specialist. He manages all of the election systems inventory, managing
our public test lists for the counties, everything like that.
Elisa Gray is the training and assessment specialist. She actually serves as the instructor of the SEAT
program, and she also administers training for our statewide voter registration system. I, of course,
am the election systems audit specialist, and I do election audits, and I also track voting system anomalies.
So when something goes wrong and it gets reported to us, I track and investigate those.
And then Peyton is our graduate assistant. She helps Lisa and the rest of the team with really whatever
we need, but she also really helps administer the VRAPSA program, which is that statewide voter registration
system training that all election administrators are required to take. Next slide. So I know it may
be hard to see up here, but I'm going to walk through it just so you are aware. This is what VSTOP does.
So we actually began in 2007, and we started out actually
doing an election systems inventory. So when they originally approached, the state legislator approached,
saying, we want a program who can build us a database to hold all of our election equipment,
serial numbers, brands, what they are, how many they have, when they were utilized, how often they're
utilized. And that's what V-Stop began as, is the development of the election systems inventory. So
since 2007 and the beginning of that, we've acquired now eight different functions which we run.
We certify all of the voting systems for use in Indiana. We currently have four certified vendors for
use in Indiana. We certify those systems every four years. We also were the first, actually we were
one of the first states in the United States to certify electronic poll books, which is really exciting.
And so we handle all the certifications for our three electronic
four, actually four now, we have a new vendor, four electronic pull book vendors here in the state of
Indiana. We do random audits in the off year, which is where we basically request. We give the counties
their randomly selected and we say, hey, you have some voting equipment, take it out, inspect it, make
sure it turns on, let us know if there's anything wrong with it, and kind of allows us to check in on
the life cycle of the equipment. Post-election audits, which I'll talk about briefly here today, and
then training and assessment, all of our conferences we go to.
and then, of course, seats. Next slide. So what are post-election audits here in Indiana? So we began
doing post-election audits, and again, the state entrusted VSTOP to do this work. So it was never a
state function. Before, it was a VSTOP function. It has always been a VSTOP function. In 2018, when
we piloted doing post-election audits with Marion County. Give me just a second here to help me see.
My screen's a little bit bigger. And so that's when we began doing post-election audits. Now, into 2026,
I'm very proud to say that VSTOP has conducted 38 post-election audits in 35 counties across the state.
Lake, Clark, and Marion were audited twice. So that's why we have 38 audits, but only 35 counties.
The reason that the state legislator passed this law and wanted to do post-election audits in the first
place was because the way Indiana code is written right now is that there is actually no voluntary way
for a county to check its election results outside of certification. So when Kylie and team and Nicole
and team come in and they do their first round of tabulation, their second and third and fourth and
10, 12, however many checks they do of all their different ballots,
and they certify those results, there's only two people or two
organizations that can actually file to challenge or check the election results, the candidates themselves
and the political parties in which those candidates run. And so this gives the opportunity for what
we consider to be a voluntary or optional check on the election systems. Again, this is the only way
in Indiana that counties can voluntarily say, we want somebody to come in and check our elections.
And so as you can see here, we've been all around the state. Last year, we completed 13 post-election
audits, or not last year, in 2024. We completed 13 post-election audits in 2025. We audited Clark and
Lake special elections, their school board referendums. And so we got the chance to go down there and
do those again. The post-election audits and the style of audits that we run have been widely tested
and widely accepted across the country. It began in Colorado in 2017.
as really the leader of statewide auditing. But it goes all the way back to about 2012 when the research
started coming out about these kinds of post-election audits that we run. But NASA, the National Association
of Election Directors, National Associations of Secretary of State, as well as the National Conference
of State Legislator and others have found that the way we audit is considered the gold standard
of post-election audits. Next slide.
So what are we doing, and what is a post-selection audit? So this is the Indiana code definition of
post-selection audit. I'm actually not even going to read it, because it's hard to understand. It doesn't
really make a lot of sense. So on the next slide, I have a much better definition that I think encompasses
what a post-selection audit is and what the goal is. So basically, what it is is we are taking a random
sample of ballots
And for example, here in Monroe County, since you all use paper ballots or paper ballot cards specifically,
we will take a random sample of ballots and we will hand tally the results of those ballots until that
sample can give us statistical evidence that the election outcome was correctly reported. So that's
what we're doing here. We use a methodology called risk limiting auditing. And what we're doing is,
It centers around a risk limit. And the risk limit is that percent chance that our audit would not catch
an error if there was one. So if candidate A was the tabulated winner, but actually candidate B was
the winner because there was some kind of voting system malfunction or something like that, it centers
around a risk. What is the percent risk that if we were to do an audit, it would not catch an outcome error?
Okay, and so that's the kind of methodology that we utilize surrounding post-selection audits. On the
next slide, I do go into a little bit more detail.
you'll be able to see. It'll be hard to read, but I want to kind of go through some terminology and
talk a little bit about this voting system. So they use Heart InterCivic here in Monroe County, and
that allows us to conduct that ballot polling audit. So like I said, this is where we are going to take
a random sample of ballots, and we hand tabulate the results of those ballots until that can give us
confidence that, again, if we were to continue this hand count and go 100% of the way, all the way through
the hand count, that we would be X amount percentage. For us, we try to shoot for 95% to 99% confidence
or 1% to 5% risk, which is above the industry standard of about 9% is the industry standard. Until it
gives us that level of confidence to say with 95% confidence, we would state that
we would be certifying the correctly reported election outcome. Or on the flip side, we have a 5% chance
that today's audit wouldn't catch an outcome error if there was one. On the next slide, I actually detail
a little bit about
that risk limit and a little bit about the confidence level. So I said risk limit is that 1% to 9% margin.
And that's, again, that would be the risk that the audit wouldn't catch an outcome error if there was
one. On the flip side is that confidence level. And that's the percent chance that we can be confident
that our audit would have caught an incorrect outcome error if there was one.
The audit hinges on a few things, but what it really hinges on and what makes our audit so great is
that in other states, they do what's called fixed percentage audits. So that's where no matter what,
whether the race was won by one vote or the race was won by 10,000 votes, they would take, we'll say,
5% of the audit, the ballots, and they will retabulate those ballots to ensure that those ballots had
an accurate count. That's what a fixed percentage audit is. But when we do risk-limiting audits,
The audit scope, so how many ballots we sample and how big the audit is, is heavily dependent on how
close the contest was. So the closer the contest margins,
the more ballots we're gonna need to sample to give us that level of confidence. And that makes sense.
That's actually a really great thing that you're saying, the closer the race is, we need more evidence
of these results to showcase that our audit is actually gonna tabulate the correct election outcome.
And so that's what that diluted margin is, if you can see it on the screen. The closer that diluted
margin is, the more ballots we're going to need to sample. And that's pretty standard across the board.
We use what's called the Stark audit tool. It was developed by Dr. Philip Stark from the University
of California, Berkeley. This tool that we utilize, he was actually one of the lead researchers on risk
limiting auditing. He developed this tool to be utilized. And so we utilized that tool or that software.
The pluses, anybody can find it. You can go into Google and you can type Stark audit tool, ballot polling
audits, and the tool will come right up, which is really great for public transparency.
We will need, and what Kylie knows very well is the biggest lift from the county is we need what's called
a ballot inventory. This ballot inventory lets us know exactly where all the ballots are. Okay, so as
you all may or may not know, ballots, absentee ballots and such are all sorted by precinct. So there's
a lot of bags and a lot of boxes in which these ballots are in. And if we're gonna pull a random sample
of ballots, we're gonna need to know how many boxes of ballots there are
how many ballots are in each box. And that ballot inventory is what helps us do that. And so that is
really one of the biggest lifts of the county in this process, is a ballot inventory. But I actually
got the opportunity to see your ballot storage facilities last election cycle in 2024. And I have no
doubt that Monroe County will be up to the challenge to complete a ballot inventory without much trouble.
We will also develop what's called a random seed number.
This is a critical part of the audit process because it helps us pull that random sample of ballots.
So if you know, computers are not inherently random, right? They run on a standard set of code. And
so what we do, and this is the really awesome part of the audit, and I'm really excited about it, and
I brought some with me if you want to see them. But we actually take a 10-sided die, and we roll that
10-sided die 20 times. And it gives us a random seed number.
That will help us determine what the sample of ballots is and what it looks like. And when we do it,
we draw that seed number live time the day of the audit. We don't draw this seed number weeks in advance.
So Kylie and her team or the county election board is going to know what ballots are subject for audit
and which ballots are going to be hand counted. We actually on the day the morning of the audit we invite
members of the public to attend and you help us draw that seed number to get that random sample of ballots.
So that is a really unique and exciting part of the process is that nobody knows what ballots not even
myself are going to be selected for audit until the morning of the audit.
And so that is a really unique thing. It also, should anybody call into question our audit practices
later on, we would be able to take that seed number and enter it back into our audit tool. And because,
again, it's not inherently random, at that point we could recreate it. So it actually becomes an experiment
that could be recreated in its entirety, which is really exciting.
Last thing that I'm going to talk about that's an important part of this process is when the audit tool
develops our sample of ballots, we'll just say, for example, it's precinct one, and we have to sample
ballots. There's 15 ballots in precinct one. There's going to be a lot more, but we'll say 15 for the
sake of this example. And we have to sample two ballots. So maybe we have to sample ballot one and sample
ballot 12. Well, it can be really hard.
If with 15 ballots, it's really easy to count to ballot one, and it's really easy then to take that
stack of ballots and count to ballot 12. Now imagine a box that has 2,500 ballots in it. You can't really
count easily to the ballot that's gonna be selected for audit. And so we've worked with the team at
UC Berkeley to develop what's called the six cut method. And it's where we actually take those stack
of ballots and we cut them like a deck of cards six times. And then we pull the top ballot for inspection
That's the ballot then we use for inspection. We then mark it with a sticky note, and it goes back into
that bag. So if we did need to recreate the audit, we would know which ballots we polled. But it can
be really hard. And you'll see later on, if you have any questions, I can show you what that polling
of the ballots looks like. And then you could see just kind of how difficult it may be to find those
ballots and why we do that six-cut method. Next slide.
So this walks you through the process. It looks like a lot of steps, but it's really not too bad. But
where it starts is here. It starts with a conversation with the county election board, the county clerk,
and the election supervisors of each county to talk and really figure out if this is a process that
they would like to move forward with. The moment that they move forward with that, we actually begin
establishing audit details. So date, time, location.
And this is where the county election board in coordination with the election office can determine how
they would like to run this. It can be two different ways. We've had it where the county clerks have
selected which contests they would like to choose for audit. You will choose the county will choose
up to three. And typically we choose down ballot contests. So they must be county wide.
So all ballots in the county, so it can't just be a city council race for this one city, because again,
the ballot inventory has ballots in which all the county votes. So they have to be county-wide contests,
but we typically have counties choose one at the top or middle of the ticket in a federal contest, one
in the middle of the ballot, and then a county-level contest that may fall near the bottom of the ballot.
The reason that we do that is because even though we're only tabulating those three contests specifically,
down ballot,
If the tabulators, or if there was to be a significant problem with the voting systems, there would
be a good chance that it would mess up up and down the ballot. So the fact that we allow them to select
a contest at the top, near the middle, and the bottom of the ballot allows us to then say, even though
we're only checking three contests, we would have the ability to infer that the other contests were
correctly tabulated.
So then again, the county election board can choose those contests or the county clerk. It's whatever
they kind of work together to determine how they would like to choose those contests. For example, I
will say we just audited St. Joseph County in 2024. It was the largest county audit we've done to date.
We hand counted 1,761 ballots.
for three contests, and it was a lot. But they wanted to do President of the United States. Well, that
race in St. Joseph County was lost by like 600 votes, I think it was, and the sample size was going
to be like 28,500 ballots.
Unfortunately, as much as I would love to do a hand count of 28,500 ballots, that's not feasible. So
then I did work with the county election board and the county clerk's office to actually choose a race
that was a little bit further down the ballot. So again, we will work with you all to determine and
choose races that we believe are reasonable. But again,
If there was a significant tabulation error where the voting systems, because that's what we're looking
at. We're really not looking at anything else besides saying, did the voting systems function properly
to generally and correctly tabulate election results? That's what we're doing. And if there was a massive
problem where they were tabulating a contest incorrectly, we would be able to infer up and down the
ballot that that voting system was not functioning properly.
Okay, so the county election board gets to choose those three contests from there.
actually, I will say, back up one step before they choose their contest. The county election board is
required to unanimously approve of this. So VSTOP cannot just come in and run an audit, as much as I
would like to just have Kylie come in and say, yeah, we'd love you to run an audit. It requires the
elections board unanimous approval. So after this meeting, probably later on in the month, probably
towards the end of February, I will be communicating with all counties who, like you, have expressed
interest in conducting an audit.
And then I will send you all a county election board resolution, which then can be reviewed and then
must be adopted by the county. That then goes to the Secretary of State's office, where the Secretary
of State puts that final stamp of approval and is like, yes, Monroe County can absolutely do a post-election
audit. Then that's when we can start working with the county election board, county clerks, and the
election team to choose the contest, choose a location. Sorry, I did forget about that resolution. And
it's really important, because that ultimately needs to be approved by you all.
From there, we will do a pre-audit meeting with the county election board and everybody participating
in the audit. That typically takes place about a month before the audit. Hey, you're good to go. We
have your ballot. You have everything you need to do your ballot inventory, everything like that. The
date time location's confirmed. We're ready to go. From there, the election will happen. Kiley election
board teams will run a wonderful election. Ballots will be tabulated and ballots will be, and the election
will be certified.
Once the election is certified, that's when Kylie can get that ballot inventory together. She can't
get that ballot inventory together until all the ballots have been accounted for, cast, and are now
properly stored post-certification. That ballot inventory will come to me. I will make sure that it
functions properly. So just making sure that it functions in our audit tool properly and that it matches.
So if you have 10,000 ballots cast in the election and that's how many is on your election report,
on your ballot inventory, there better be 10,000 ballots accounted for in that inventory. We go through
that, and then the day of the audit happens. What we'll do is we will come in. All of the ballots will
need to be readily available because, again, we don't know which ballots will be selected for audit.
All those ballots will need to be readily available.
I will give a public audit presentation, so similar to what I'm doing today, but it actually describes
the process, so members of the public understand what's gonna be happening today, because I realize
that that's the value. The value is showcasing for the election board, for Kylie and team, it's showcasing
that you all run fantastic elections. That's the point of the process. That's why we do these post-election
audits, is to showcase that the counties in Indiana are doing a great job at running their elections.
And so we'll give a public audit presentation, and then we'll draw that seed number. Again, we recruit
members of the public, the election board, you roll those dice. We generate the sample of ballots. Once
the ballots are
the list is generated and we know where the ballots are, we begin this massive process of ballot labeling.
So then all of those ballot boxes, we have special labels that actually state how many ballots need
to be sampled out of that box, and we will go on and we will actually put this label on those ballot boxes.
For your records, ballots will remain sealed until the audit begins. So for chain of custody purposes,
there will be no handling of ballots until the audit begins. We also have a sign-up sheet where everybody
who is handling the ballots must sign in, just so that way we create accountability of who will be handling
ballots. We will then go in and we'll label the boxes that were selected for audit and how many ballots we need.
And then we will go in teams. Typically is how you do it. It will be teams of two. Counties can do bipartisan
teams if they'd like. Because there's no actual tabulation of election results, it does not need to
be bipartisan in nature. Again, it's a public transparent process, so anyone could watch it. But what
we'll do is then we will then take that ballot box, bring it out, stack those ballots up,
and we'll begin the six-cutting process in selecting the ballots for audit out of that box. When that
box is done, those ballots, before that team is done, they will come over to a tally team. They will
bring those ballots. So we'll say it's two ballots. They'll bring them up to us at the V-stop team and
say, we'll just use, you know, we'll use House. What House district are you all in? Who's your
representative? House district? Nine. Nine? Okay. So House district nine. So we'll say we're doing the
House district nine contest.
And then you would come up and you'd say, this ballot voted for candidate A. And we would mark that
in the candidate A column, or this voter voted for candidate B. And we'd mark it in that column. And
we do that for that box of ballots. Those people then take those ballots back. Those ballots go directly
and immediately back into that box. That box then goes away and is sealed. So that box then will never
then be handled again as a part of the audit. So we move through them one box at a time.
We can do multiple boxes, but each team of inspectors and counters are only working with one box of
ballots at a time, and that's also to ensure then that ballots from one precinct don't end up in another
box's precinct, right? So again, we've done this 38 times. I've done these 15 times myself. So I say
we got a pretty good show running, but we want to ensure ultimately that these ballots are handled as
least as possible. That's our goal.
We'll do that for the sample, so we'll get all of those three contests, we'll hand count for the sample,
and we will continue to sample, so we will continue to pull ballots and continue to count ballots until
we reach that confidence level. Again, most of the time that confidence level is set anywhere between
95 and 99 percent. In St. Joseph County, because the audit was so big, we dropped that down to 91 percent, but
through our sample and through our audit, we ended up at a 99% confidence level anyway. And so that's
the process. That's the process in a nutshell. From there, we will leave. I will write up an official
audit report. That audit report then will get reviewed by myself and the election director for the state
of Indiana.
That report will then come back to the county election board and the county clerk's office to post on
their website. It'll be posted on the VSTOP's website, and then it will also be posted on the state
of Indiana's secretary of state's website. And so again, I appreciate you allowing me the time to come
and present and talk about this process and what it would look like. I do have brochures on post election.
I have those dice in the sticky notes that we utilize, so you can see those if you would be interested.
I'm happy to take any questions at this time. And I will admit, I do have an additional portion of this
presentation. I didn't want to get into it unless there was a need to, but it actually does walk through
that process step-by-step. So if you would be interested, it would take me about 10 minutes probably
to walk through that. That's up to you all if you would like me to proceed and actually go through it.
the audit that we did in St. Joseph County for reference. If you do not need that or you would rather
wait, then the plus is they have this presentation so you can look through it. But if there was any
interest, I can't go through what we did in South Bend so you would be able to see what an actual audit
looks like. I will also say that I added this presentation to the county website so it is there as a
link and any putty of the public can access it as well.
Can I ask a question? Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, anybody can ask. Yeah. So you'd pick three different races.
Yes. So you're going to have three different sample sizes, correct? Correct. So you're not going to
use this, you're not going to pull a ballot and then look at the three races you're interested in. You're
going to pull a separate ballot. No, we will actually, we will use the same ballot for inspection.
So say, for example, actually in St. Joseph County, the first contest needed 966.
or maybe it was like 750 ballots, then one of them needed like 960 ballots or 980, and then the other
one needed 1,761. So what we do is we start with the lowest contest, so with the contest that needs
the fewest amount of ballots polled,
and we will go with those, we will go read down all of those contests for each ballot. Once we get to
the first contest and we'll say it needed 10 ballots and the next one needed 20 and the next one needed
60, once we hit that,
that ballot sample size, we will check the confidence level for that contest specifically.
So we'll stop. We will look at that contest specifically. We said, hey, we've sampled the 10 ballots
we need for this contest. Let's check and see if we've reached our confidence level for that contest.
If we haven't reached the confidence level for the contest, the plus is we still are going to need to
pull more ballots for the next two contests.
Say we reach our confidence level and we don't need to sample anymore for that contest, we then will
just start tallying the two contests after that. And then for the one that needs 60, if we reach our
confidence level for the one that needed 40, we would just look at that one contest at that point forward.
So we do go down the ballot for those single ballots. So if you're pulling from box one for the first
example that you gave, you've got to keep that box open to then look at race two and race three.
is what you're saying. That's correct. But once that ballot is sampled, it won't be sampled again. Right.
So the pluses is that once that ballot is sampled, once that box, if it's 10 ballots for sample, we're
going to sample all 10 in that box no matter what. So even if we only, you see what I'm saying? So if
there's 10 ballots that are required for sample, we're going to do all 10 of those ballots
on all three of those contests. And we continue to just go down. It generates a long sample list. So
I can just generate it to be almost infinite. I can generate a list for all the ballots. And we just
go down that list of those boxes for all the contests. And so yes, we will check all three on a single
ballot until we don't need to. Now, for example, in one county, they were all within 30 ballots of one
another. So the contests were all within the sample size.
So the greatest sample size I think we needed was 39. It was a very wide margin contest, so you won't
see that here in Monroe County, but it was a very wide contest margin. I think one of them needed 12,
one of them needed 22, and the other needed 39. We decided to go ahead and just do 39 ballots for all
three contests because there's not a problem with sampling more.
You just have to meet that minimum sample number before you can check for the confidence level. So we
decided just to do 39 for all three contests. So if you were to choose contests that are relatively
similar, you all and your team could decide, hey, we want to go ahead and we just want to do a sample
of 100 ballots for all three contests, even though they may be only needed 50, 60, and 95, right?
So it is up to you all, but the one in St. Joe, I was like, we're going to save a lot of time if we
don't have to go down the ballot for three contests for 1,761 ballots. So that's why we dropped off.
So once that second contest was done, we checked for the confidence. We reached the confidence level
on that ballot. So then we could just pull the ballot and start saying the one contest that we needed
for the greater sample size. Yeah. Any other questions from anyone?
I don't have a question, but I first thank you again for coming down. And I know that I feel pretty
confident that we'll be seeing you again here in Monroe County. And when we have an amazing audit, thanks
to your guidance, I promise you I'll take you to get the best french fries this side of heaven while
you're here.
I love some french fries. I actually just, I stopped at Mother Bears for lunch before I came here. So
I love coming down to Bloomington with all the good eats. I can do a little better than Mother Bears.
Okay. All right. And second, second. Okay. Did I understand you to say you were provided with a car
and a gas card?
Yes, yes. So through the university, we are eligible to receive a university vehicle. And so it's nice
that I didn't have to worry about putting the miles on my personal car today to come down here. We had
a university vehicle. So they have a motor pool. And so we get the opportunity to. It's the same car
I drive. I drive a Ford Fusion. I got a Ford Fusion out of the motor pool. So nothing too special. Every
once in a while, though, we get to drive the new RAV4s. Those are really nice. It must be nice.
I just caught that, held on to that. You got a company truck. We have a motor pool, so anytime we do
official business travel, we get to use the university's cars for that travel. Okay. And I just want
to say again, the reason that we do this, and I think that many of you, Monroe County has also been
under a spotlight in recent elections as well. Maybe not for the right reasons, but
you know, nonetheless. And we are in a time where even the most confident and the most accurate elections
ever could be called into question. And I'm really, really thankful that in our state and under the
Secretary of State and General Assembly's authority that we have the opportunity to do these voluntary
checks because
I know and I work with these people every single day. I see the kind of operations that they run and
I know they run fantastic elections, but I get to come in as a third party, not associated with the
county at all and run this audit and then affirm the work that they're doing. And so I just want to
thank you all as the election board and your elections team for the work you all do, the pressure that
you're under each and every election is immense and it's only getting greater. And I don't want to add
you know, an audit to add to that level of stress. And so that's why I pitch it as a way to just highlight
the amazing work that you all do and to affirm the work of our county election officials across the
state. It truly is an honor for me to do so. And so should you all vote at a future meeting with that
resolution to designate for an audit, I look very much so forward to coming back down to Bloomington
and working with you all. So thank you so much for your time.
And Mr. Matt, when you explained it to me that day, you and I have had conversations in the past about
this. And when you explained it that way, that helped me feel better because when the term first started
making its way around it, it really felt more like,
a finger-pointing expedition. And as we talked about it, you really helped me feel better that it more
or less showcases the good work that is going on. And for that, I'm incredibly grateful. Thank you so
much for coming down. And I will just make one final comment in relationship to that is I am here to
affirm the work, but I'm also here to point out things that could be improved. For example, there was a county
and their audit report is online so you can read it, where we went to that ballot box and there was
two ballots that were not there. There was supposed to be four ballots for sample and we were required
to sample two and there were only two ballots in that bin. That was a reality where it didn't impact
the efficacy of the audit, right?
those two ballots weren't going to change the outcome of the audit because it was correctly tabulated,
but in their report I noted that unfortunately we went in and there was supposed to be four ballots
in this box and there was only two and it had to be noted in the report. And so I will just say that
while I'm here to affirm and I'm here to do that work, it is my job as the audit specialist to
point out and to document where there could be things that have happened in the election. Now, again,
that's not saying that it's changing outcomes or something illegal or nefarious happened, and I never
accuse anybody or anything like that. I just stated that we went into the box and there were supposed
to be four ballots in the box and there was only two. Now, there's 2,000 ballots in the box. I'm not
counting all 2,000. But for that one, it was easy for me to catch. So I did let the county clerk know.
I have to put this in my report because I've now witnessed this. I said, there's nothing that's going
to happen to you. There's no wrongdoing here. It's OK. Human errors happen. Those ballots could have
been in another box. And so I didn't point any fingers. I just stated there was supposed to be four.
There was only two. So just as a heads up, should there be anything like that, I will.
I will note that in my report out of public transparency and efficacy for what I do. So while I'm here
to affirm your work, I am here to also be nonpartisan and nonpolitical and do that work. So just wanted
to let you all know that, I guess. I was like, maybe I should let the county election board know that
should anything come out of the audit that could be of concern, it will be noted in the report. Absolutely.
So sorry, just wanted to put that in there. I didn't want you all to be blindsided if something were
to happen at the audit and then be like, I'm going to report this in my report. And then you guys would
be like, oh my gosh, what? So just wanted to be aware.
That we've never had anything come to the point of an audit where we felt like there would need to be
an investigation of any kind or anything nefarious that's never happened in the 38 audits we've ever
done. All of our audits have always affirmed that the election outcomes were correctly tabulated as
well. So we've never had anything otherwise of the sort. And don't expect that in 2026 either. Thank
you very much. Awesome. Thank you so much. Any other questions? I'm pretty hearing from us.
OK, so just so you're aware of next steps, come the end of the month, I'm planning to send a recommendation
memo to the Secretary of State's office. With Kylie's good graces, she has expressed that you all were
interested. So in this memo, it is not confirming, and it is not guaranteeing you all basically locking
you in. I will be recommending you guys to the Secretary of State, basically saying, should the county
election board send a resolution to the Secretary of State requesting designation?
that V-Stop has talked with the county and believes that they should receive designation, okay? So I
will be sending that memo out probably at the end of this week or early next week. Once I get approval
to move forward, the county election board will receive a notice from me letting me know, letting you
all know that you have been recommended by V-Stop to the secretary of state to receive audit designation
should you all approve to want to request that designation. It basically is a fast track to the process.
So it's like you guys sign the resolution
then the Secretary of State already knows that Monroe County is interested, so they'll be expecting
your resolution, and they can send that approval right along quickly. So just want to let you know that's
what the next steps will be in the process. All right, thank you. Awesome, thank you so much.
Thank you. County Council Meeting Update. All right, County Council Meeting Update. I was able to go
to the County Council Meeting on
I can't think of the date right now. A couple of Tuesdays ago, we did get 27th. Thank you, Molly. We
had two of the requests voted down. The third was tabled until the next meeting, which is next week
on Tuesday. I will be there. And I believe Nicole was also going to be in attendance. I will be in attendance.
I want to know if the two of you would also like to be in attendance. If you do plan to be in attendance,
I will send out a public notice. If you would prefer me to just send one out in case if more than one
member is able to attend. And I did add into the packet the same numbers that you guys received back
in November, December, and January. Those are all the same numbers that
You guys have seen multiple times. They are the same numbers that were sent to the county council. Yeah.
Because I remember that Ms. Skethens had stated that she did not receive the numbers. I did send the
numbers. They were the same numbers that were received by the election board at previous election board meetings.
Where's that in our packet? It is going to be directly after the documents of the statewide
voter registration system from the Jeff Ellington. These handwritten notes? Correct. They don't translate
easily for me into what the county council sees. It's the same things that were submitted.
But again, they do not translate easily for me. And reviewed with their liaisons. Correct. The liaisons
received them multiple times. Both Henry and Peter Iverson received them. And then we also had a meeting
with a commissioner, and they received them as well. It's the same numbers for all of those individuals.
The plan is to make another presentation at their meeting next. Yep. Molly had a hand. I did receive
an email from the council president that she asked me to read to you when appropriate. Appropriate as
far as I'm concerned right now. So this is from
President, Council President Jennifer Crossley as Council President. During the budget meetings last
year, the council made some tough budget decisions across the board and county government. Critical
moments such as ensuring all voters of Monroe County have uninterrupted access to voting in the upcoming
primary is a concern for the council.
As a reminder to the clerk and the election board, during our budget discussions, we made it abundantly
clear that should the clerk need additional funding to run the primary and general elections, that the
county council would welcome her back to hear about this ask and to consider. However, I want to mention
that I've been a bit dismayed to hear in our recent council meetings that the personnel numbers that
were presented to us were not being presented to the election board for a vote. Additionally, nothing
has yet to be spent in these lines.
It is an uncommon to have a department ask for additional appropriations, but have yet to use any of
the funding that was initially approved by the council. I want to repeat again, once the board has approved
the voting hours for the primary, I welcome the clerk and the election board to come back to the council
for additional appropriations. If time doesn't allow for attendees to come in person for the ask, I
surely hope you consider participating via Teams. Best, Jennifer Crossley, President, Monroe County
Councilmember, District 4.
So that sounds to me like what she's saying is we need to say these are the hours we're going to do,
and then we have to say this is what it's going to cost, and you've so far offered us A, and we need
A plus B. Is that kind of where we're sitting on that? I don't want to speak for President Crossley
or interpret her email.
because I don't want to interpret it wrong. But typically what happens before a department asks for
an additional appropriation is there's expenditures out of the line. So I think what she's indicating
is that it's unusual to be asked for more money before the current funds are spent. What we need to
do, it seemed to me, is set the hours for early voting and then
We've now got something set that goes to the county council and says, this is what we need to pay for
this. But there is enough in there to pay for early voting already. It's also that there are a lot of
other lines in there that we don't know how much will be spent. It's not just personnel from what I
took away from the meeting. Mr. Chair. At the recent election meeting, which
the election supervisor attended in my stead, we were invited, as I understand it now, we may be about
to discover that there was an egregious lie told, but as I understand it, one of my liaisons came in
to file candidacy papers and told my election supervisor that they were expecting us, that they had
been expecting us, that if we
because they knew that we were saying that there was not enough money to run two elections at the level
to which Monroe County has become accustomed. My understanding, again, unless an egregious lie has been
told, is that my election supervisor was told if the clerk gets the ask-in with the request for additional
appropriations by the next day, which was the deadline
if you wanted to appear before the council, that the council was ready, willing, and waiting to receive
us to consider those additional appropriations. So... Which was the same thing that council members
told me at a Chamber of Commerce event that I was... Well, thank you for verifying. So, my team and
I got together and this is not...
This is not rocket science. I looked at what we had been appropriated. I looked at what we used for
comparable elections, took a couple of haircuts, gave those updated numbers in a request for additional
appropriations to meet that deadline. So it was surprising to me when they pretty much asked, why are
you here when you haven't spent any money? We haven't spent any money because
we're getting ready to prepare for those elections, but we know in advance. You know if your Duke Energy
bill, if it's $500 and you only have $300, you know you don't have enough to pay your Duke Energy bill.
Now, we can do as you suggested, which is to establish the voting schedule and polling location and
the hours, but here's where we are. The minimum
As we've discussed in previous meetings, the minimum is the hours that the office is open, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
So we don't even need to vote about that. It at a minimum will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. What we have to vote
on today is whether we want to extend the early voting hours to the hours to which Monroe County
has become accustomed. That vote has to be unanimous. Now, Mr. Chair, I would never step on you as the
chair. If you want to hold that vote right now and find out whether you have an unanimous vote, you
go right ahead. I can tell you, and I'm only speaking for Nicole Brown, that vote will fail today, which
means that we would have 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you have another suggestion, because right now, I do not
even have the manpower
to have those extra hours. The overtime line was zeroed out. I have no employee, and you're welcome
to go and do a poll of my office, no employee who is going to work 12 to 16 hours per day to do what
we need to do in the 60 days prior to election day for early voting and preparation for early voting.
I do not have anyone who is willing to work for less than one hour of comp time per day.
to make that happen because you're asking them to give up their dinner time, bedtime, homework time,
and come stay extra, come on weekends. It's not there. And so without that, there is no way that we
can do what we need to do to have that 28 days of early voting at the previously accommodated hours.
because I do not have the manpower to do it for less than one hour of comp time per day for your troubles.
You can take that vote if you want, sir. Thoughts? If I remember correctly, Kylie, you have said at
previous meeting or meetings that we will not need as much staffing just in terms of the number of staff
for early voting in 2026 as we
used in 2024, is that correct? So that was what I was hoping until we have started to see the number
of candidate filings that have came in over these past couple of weeks. With us being at 199 candidates
that have filed with 16 contested races at this point in time, there is no way that we can make four
check-ins, three printers, two checkouts, and one greeter work. It's just not going to happen.
That was us cutting it back and me trying to cut back as much as possible so that we weren't spending
as much money. But with as many contested races as what we are looking at for this primary election
alone, that will not work. Well, the number of filings reflects the people that are running for precinct
chair. And a lot of those are uncontested. And it also looks at the number of people who have filed
to run for state
Delegate and I know which three of those are contested. I know that which will have to be printed on
the ballot And what does printing on the ballot? You're just saying that that slows down the printing
that increases the number of people that do show out to vote during the primary election And do you
have any projection on what that would look like? I
In your packet, I give you guys early voting check-in. There is a single sheet of paper that is an added
edition paper that we added in. This will show you that in 2024 for the general election, we had 10
check-ins, six printers, five checkouts, and two greeters. That had us checking in a maximum of 36 voters
per hour. Now, if we have
the number that I have projected for 2026, we would have to check in 120 voters per hour if we have
the same turnout as we did in 2024, which was 30,625 individuals. I don't feel like you answered the
question. Maybe I didn't express it correctly. But what makes you think that because there are more
contested races, that that will drive out voting more? They're local contested races.
That has been shown in the past with going back to past records of elections, the more contested races,
the higher the turnout was. Okay, and do you have numbers that are firm numbers you could use for projection?
Yes, I can pull that, but I've also been stated and have said in past meetings that other counties are
telling each other that we need to prepare for a presidential election turnout this year.
That has been a thing that I have said since the beginning of these meetings, since the three of you
were on the board. We can't look at a midterm election the way that we used to. We just can't. I'm not
in disagreement, but I'm asking
I don't want just a dart thrown at the wall here. And that's what this number feels like. We also have
to remember we're going to be in a new location. This is a new location that we're going to have to
learn. So learning through these curves of being in a new location, figuring out how things are going
to work and how the flow is going to work in this flow in this room is one of many of the things that
we have had to take into consideration. And right now, I mean, we have
the move that we're preparing for, and it doesn't help that we've had an increase of people coming in
and amending their documents that were already approved, already processed, put through the system and
had been accepted, and now they're coming in to change small things that are being nitpicked. That is
not helping us. It's putting more work on my staff
And we are in the middle of moving. We're in the middle of the last couple of days of candidate filing.
We have an increased number of people coming in. And we've already had 18 additional people that should
not have had to come in that came in today to make amendments. And why is all your staff here,
pretty much? I only have two members of my staff here. The other two are in the office. Good. I only
have four. I don't have anything to do with that. That's for sure. Two part time, two full time. Right.
And if we're expected for them to each be working without overtime is absolutely certain. So I do have
a question then that relates to what you just said about the photocopying. Does the staff not check
for accuracy.
We do check for accuracy and the thing is is most of those had not been processed yet. We went ahead
and got copies made for what we thought was Chrissy and then come to find out was not for Chrissy because
the email came for Chrissy. Chrissy has seen them. But we have candidates coming in saying that you
are the one that have been emailing them and then they've called our office asking for Chrissy's number
because they're concerned why it's Penny Githans reaching out to them not the party chair.
I work with my chair the same way that Mr. Shields works with his party chair. As I'm saying, this is
increasing more work in my office for my staff that's not being compensated the way that they should
be compensated, including myself. But thank you for reaching out to the Indiana election division. As
I understand it, there is no county election board member, including myself, as secretary of the election
board that should be
rejecting candidate filings, contacting candidates, and asking them to come. And as I also understand
it, at least one of those persons is an elected official whose address would be better protected based
upon the job that they do. And they certainly can choose to do that. We certainly do have elected officials
whose residential addresses are protected. But this one elected official, as I understood, was ordered
to come in and switch
I did not order anyone and I was not challenging them. I was trying to protect them as I told them.
As I will say, I think it would be better clarification if it's coming from the party chair themselves
and that there is clarification that it is an opinion of the individual who is stating it and not being
told, hey, you need to go make this change.
because that is what the candidates are coming into my office saying. That's the way that they
are interpreting it. They have came in and I mean I have one of them here that's been dealing with all
the candidate filings themselves along with another individual and that's all it's been today is them
coming in and saying, hey, I've been told that I need to fix this and that it's not valid if I don't
and it is valid because it has been accepted by my office. It has been processed through and it is through the clerk
and her office that is the ones approving these. Well, what I've heard is in the past there was somebody
that would check things carefully, but also in the past and past elections that the clerk would stagger.
And you and I have talked about this in the past too, that person A that works in your office would
start at eight, person B would come in at 10.
Everybody comes in at eight. I have always said that on election day. No. Well, that's what we're all
in there at 5 a.m. That's what has happened in past elections. And I've heard that. No, no, no. I've
heard that from people that worked in the clerk's office. No, no.
We do everybody reports to work at five a.m. On Election Day, including the election board. And I miss
I misspoke. I apologize. And the business of the business of the clerk's office, voter registration
and election continues to go on while we are preparing for early voting and Election Day. So there is
no staggering. There will be no staggering.
And my state statute, we can't stagger, especially for early voting. You have to open at 8 AM. You have
to close at 4 PM. If you choose to open earlier, you may. If you choose to stay open longer, you may.
But they must be open 8 to 4. We cannot open at 10 o'clock and go till 6. We can't open a couple hours
earlier and go till 4. It has to be at least 8 to 4. In the past, for early voting, the election office
staff had staggered hours.
They always come in at 8 a.m. Now, one of them will stay till 6 p.m., and the other one will stay till 6 p.m.
the following day. That is the way it has always been. Nobody comes in later in the day. No, it's not.
Yes, it is. I was here last year in 2024, and that's exactly how it was. I created a schedule for all
of my staff members. One of them is here, and she was one of the ones that stayed till 6 o'clock each
day. That's fine. That does not go back past 2024. I was here in 2023, and it was the same way as well.
before 2023, yeah, that's not in my area to say yes or no, but 2023 to 2024, that's exactly how it's
been, always has been, and is the way that it will continue to be because there's no one to cover the
front office if we have one person come in at 10 o'clock. We have nobody to cover voter registration
at early voting if somebody comes in at 10 o'clock.
Early voting opens at 8 a.m. Somebody has to be at early voting. Somebody has to be at the voter registration
office. How could one person come in at 10 o'clock if both of those offices are open at 8 a.m.? The
voting passed before the Napa building. It all occurred in one location. But I'm saying even with last
year and 2023, so where is the data that you have collected and who was it from in order for us to be
able to tell if that was accurate information or not?
I'll be glad to get in touch. What do you need us to do? If we're going to approve polling locations
and if we're going to approve early voting hours, we don't have a resolution. We did not expect that
to be something that was voted on today. We figured it would be waited on until we figure out what's
happening on the county council side. And then I was going to suggest to call special ordered meeting
next Thursday after the county council meeting.
Well, we could just... Go ahead. We could... What's the word, Molly, that I'm looking for? We could...
Recess. Yes, thank you for the meeting so that we don't even have to notice a new meeting. I would recommend
noticing it though, just as a courtesy. We'd have to make sure that the room is available next Thursday at 1.30.
Looking at the online calendar, I think it is. But I would want to double check with the commissioner's
office. There's no reason for us not to, well, I guess where we are is early voting schedule. So there's
no reason not to close this one, call a new one. That's not a big deal. We can do it. But we're going
to have to.
Well, we haven't got to that whole thing yet. It's all kind of been pulled in together. I will call
a special election board meeting if the room is available next Thursday at 1 30.
I will have a proxy here. I've already reached out to that person and they're good for that because
I'm going to be gone. This is a person who I guarantee you can handle what's gonna happen. Molly is
running now to check the office. So we can, can we, I'm gonna pause this while she checks on that and
bring that back and we'll go ahead and if there is public comment on
this or other items. We will do that now. I just want to state, it's going to be Thursday the 12th at
1.30 p.m. Yes. As long as the room is available. Yes, if the room is available. So is there public comment
while we're waiting for her to check on the room? Oh, is there a hand up? Yes, can you hear me? We can.
We can't see who you are, so please state your name. My name is Susan Brackney. OK, go ahead. I just
wanted to thank you for the work you're doing. And I'm not sure how many people are fully aware of this,
but we are smack in the middle of an authoritarian takeover of our democracy. If you haven't already,
acknowledged this reality and considered what it may mean for you as members of the election board and
as individuals, I urge you to do so. I hope you'll meet with one another and with other local officials
to plan for scenarios that could happen here, particularly relative to attempted voter suppression and
intimidation.
For instance, what if ICE or DHS sends their masked squads to protect our polling sites during the upcoming
midterm elections? Are you putting plans in place to manage this contingency and to ensure that the
vote is not suppressed? Would you put some kind of voter intimidation reporting pipeline in place? And
how will you stress test that?
before election day? Also, would you be willing to post large signs at polling places that say voter
intimidation is a crime? The DOJ has been weaponized to do this regime's bidding. And I'm just wondering
if you've considered what you would do to protect poll workers, county officials, and yourselves in
the face of
bad faith legal challenges? Also, what about putting extra protections in place for poll workers in
general? What would those look like? Those are just a few examples I could think up, but I am sure with
your experience and expertise, you would be able to anticipate many others. I hope you will lead by
proactively considering what you'll do to help protect our community and our democracy.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, I want to say caller like I'm on a television show. Sorry about that.
Um, ma'am, first, thank you for your very thoughtful, insightful, poignant inquiries. Um, and I can't
address all of those because some of those protections that you ask for, um, or, or visibility will
likely involve
money and that's where we are now. But I want to reassure you with a couple of things. For the last
number of elections, but I especially want to speak to the fact that I have the most amazing election
supervisor this side of heaven. We have been extended the opportunity to meet with both the sheriff
and the chief of police prior
to election day to talk about the plans that are in place. We can't exactly have police cars roaming
around election sites as far as visibility because it looks like you're trying to suppress the vote
and of course we would not do that. But both the sheriff and the chief of police for the city of Bloomington
have been very generous with their time telling us behind the scenes how it is that they are going to support
our efforts to make sure that it is safe for you to show up at the polling sites without trampling on
the rights of people who might be protesting in some of the groups that it sounded like you said. Signage,
ma'am, my budget was cut. That's just the truth. If you want huge big banner signs, it's a conversation,
but I don't see that.
happening today. Right now what I honestly to be honest what I want to do is make sure that we have
the manpower to staff Monroe County early voting and elections in the manner that it has been accustomed
to and right now I don't have that. I don't have the manpower. I'm certainly willing to sit with my
team and brainstorm ways to do that but it will not involve
It will not involve staggering. It will not involve asking my staff to work 12 to 16 hours per day for
less than one hour of compensatory time and call it good. That's just not where we are. I don't know
anybody who would do that. And as I fight for this, none of the election budget goes into Nicole Brown's
home pocket or otherwise. Any money that is not spent goes back into the election
budget. I'm sorry. Are you telling me to wrap up? It goes back into the election budget to be used at
a future time. And one of my own liaisons last year when we reviewed the budget that I was presenting
actually said, looking at previous budgets, you seem to have a hold on how much it takes to run the
election. The bottom line, Mr. Chair, and to the caller again, thank you so much. Here's the bottom line.
Do you consider elections to be as critical to Monroe County's infrastructure as you do your highway,
your police?
your fire, because here's the truth, when we had that disrespectful weather, oh my goodness, I don't
know how we made it through it. When we had that disrespectful weather, the highway department received
double time, they received overtime, and they received a snow bonus. All I am asking is what is fair
for people that I am asking to work 12 to 16 hours a day, and it is not, it is not fair.
less than one hour of compensatory time. And then if you go over 40, I'm getting a nasty gram from this
building, you know, saying your people are, you know, too much over 40 hours. So what do you, do you
want the infrastructure of a full out Monroe County election? And if you do, you're going to have to
pay for it. Mr. Chair, I defer to you. Nicole, I was going to say in regards to the having signage about the,
it being, sorry, a level six felony if you intimidate a poll worker that is posted at every polling
location. We have a big board that says voter information, and we have that in there for part of that.
Well, thank you also for pointing that out. But the reason that we have poll worker protection is in
place is because I am the person who went to the State House on behalf of all 92 clerks
asking for poll worker protection so that it is not legal for you to intimidate, harass, threaten, or
harm a poll worker. And that was my efforts and I didn't get a company car with a gas card from the
county. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anyone else wish to speak? Molly, are
we good on the meeting? You're good from 1.30 to 3.30. I got you. Thank you.
I will call a supplementary election board meeting on February 12, 2026, first time I've written five
all year on that, at 1.30 p.m. in this location. Okay, now go ahead. Thank you. So my three minutes.
I'm here to report what Legacy Media refuses to report.
A network of NGOs that support a sophisticated rioting industrial complex has been exposed. It's not
just Billionaire Soros Open Society Network, it's the Arabella Funding Network, now the Sunflower Services,
which was founded by Eric Kessler, which funds the Hopeful Fund. It also funded seemingly independent
news outlets on Facebook, on digital ads in 2018, targeting Trump and his supporters, conservative American
voters, with that dark money.
And how about the Tides Funding Network, also known for its dark money out of San Francisco that pushes
overt racist narratives against white Americans. Then there's billionaire Neville Roy Singham and his
network, Foreign Cash Dark Money, that pushes Chinese communist propaganda into the terrorist ecosystem.
Singham resides in Shanghai. How apropos.
And how about left-wing foreign terrorist organizations such as Hans-Jörg Weiss of Switzerland, the
founder of the 2022 Weiss Foundation and Berger Action Fund, two Washington-based groups in which Weiss
also tried to purchase a national newspaper chain, Tribune Publishing. Or how about mega donors like
Radical Lies, Democrat Tom Steyer, with financial power in the beneficial state bank merger, originally
One California Bank.
A radical Democrat who was going to run for president in 2020 but dropped out after pouring $191 million
into his own campaign. He supported California's Prop 50, and he's now running in that governor's race.
That is a dangerous man. These are dangerous people pouring dark money into
the entire terrorist ecosystem against the American people. I want to share two money facts concerning
Riot Incorporated. Number one, like any corporation, Riot Incorporated has many divisions. It has boots
on the ground, PR divisions, marketing teams, and a well-funded legal division. This is very dangerous
to our republic when operating dishonestly navigating around our laws. Second, the flow of over $100
million of American tax money has been funneled into the terrorist organizations.
Four million was funded in the Atlanta stop cop city protest in which the billionaire class and some
of the taxpayer dollars funded the rioters to disrupt the right to domestic tranquility. As well, there
are foundations like Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, who are cleverly engaging in dangerous racist
propaganda that intentionally create
violence against innocent white Americans instead of framing the truth with honesty. And I say one last
thing. Mike Pence is a traitor. And down with the British empire if they want to overthrow our government.
Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? OK, so we will deal. We will attempt to deal with the planning next
Thursday at 1.30. If you've got any objection, I will
Adjourn the meeting. Make a motion to adjourn. I'm sorry. Do you want to adjourn or recess?
I think you said, Mr. Chair, that you wanted to go ahead and notice. So we may as well. We'll just adjourn
this and have a special meeting just to talk about early voting and schedule stuff. OK. Also, the poll
location list. There was one location that has backed out.
not going to be able to be a polling location this year. They were also not able to be one in 2024.
They are still going under some remodeling right now. So they have decided that they will not be a polling
location again. My question is, do you want me to look for an additional location or relocate those
two precincts to two locations that are close? Which is the easier?
It would be easier to relocate. I believe so. And I will make that motion, Mr. Chair. I will second
that motion to have her take that one and move it into a closer. All right. Motion. Second.
Those in favor, aye. Aye. Take care of that. And then in favor of adjourning. I have one question about
this. No, no.
Sorry, I didn't see this in my packet earlier. I apologize. I had looked at it when I was at home. We
haven't heard yet from two of the locations on here also. Is there any chance that they will back out?
I don't believe either of those will back out. Those are two locations that one of them is very, very
excited about being a location, and the other one has been a location for a really long time. I think
it's just some miscommunication getting phone tagged, basically. How many live churches have been run for?
Oh, yeah. Ever. All I was going to suggest is if there's a glitch and something happens where they do
back out, can we also authorize Ms. Farris to seek an alternative? We can. We can. Yeah. Are you making
that a motion that Ms. Farris has the right to do the same to those two issues? She has the authority,
yes. OK, second? Second. OK, those in favor, aye? Aye. Aye. OK. That's good. All right, so are we good now?
As good as we can be right now? Yeah. All right. Then the meeting is adjourned.