- It is now 1 30 and I'm going to announce that I am Jack Schmidt, serving as the chair of this board
- as a proxy for Danny Shields. And to my left I have Carolyn. Who is? I am proxy for Penny Githins, the
- Democratic member of the board. Around the clerk and ex official board member. So the call to order
- is at 1 30 and I want to get a clerks update right now.
- Actually, before we start, I would like to make an amendment to the agenda, if possible, to add under
- old business, an update on staffing and procedures for early voting. You're moving, I'll second. Second.
- Aye. All opposed, same sign. Business, so back to the clerk's update.
- back to the clerks update. I just wanted to give a quick legislative update. Now, of course, nothing
- is official until it is signed by the governor. But yesterday was the Senate election hearing. And so
- I just thought I'd give a brief update on four bills. House Bill 1055 passed out of the Senate by six
- to three vote. That is the
- that allows any city or town to move their elections to an even number year in the municipal elections.
- House Bill 1359, which was the clerk's formal request, that passed out by a vote of six to two, but
- it did have an amendment that was put in
- at the 11th hour. And that amendment, I surely hate to be breaking news on this if people don't know,
- but that reduces early voting from 28 days to 16 days. Again, nothing is in stone until the governor
- signs it, but that happened just yesterday. Senate bill number 12 is on its second reading. That is
- the prohibition of ranked choice voting.
- And it seems to be moving along. And then Senate Bill 113, which was the preservation of election material,
- the bill had asked that it be increased from 22 months to 60 months. But I believe a compromise was
- made. And the compromise was 34 months, which means
- Nobody got everything. Storage was a huge issue for clerks in terms of how wanting to store election
- material for five years, it did pass out unanimously. So I just wanted to give you those updates. Nothing's
- done done until the governor signs it, but that's where we are as of yesterday. Thank you. That's my
- understanding that the Senate bill needs to go back through the House does not before it is confirmed.
- Which one?
- early voting hours or days. That was an amendment for the Senate. It needs to go back and be voted on
- in the House, does it not? Are you talking about the reduction? Yes. It has to go back to Chairman Wesco.
- My understanding, though, is that it is something that he supports. And then it will make its way to
- first, second, third reading. And they are trying to wrap those things up quickly.
- There was no reason when I left yesterday to believe that it won't pass. Update, appreciate that. Let's
- now go to item three on the agenda, old business. We have the 2026 early voting hours.
- So in your packets, you guys will see the early voting hours that's going to have both for the primary
- election and the general election. Those are both set currently at the 28 days. And I know that I've
- been in contact with Molly on getting some documentation ready for that.
- comment is that I don't know how we can vote on this until we actually know whether the 16 day reduction
- passes, because I think that should it pass, we should consider extending some hours, perhaps making
- Saturdays a full day. I know we've tried doing Sundays in the past, it's been kind of a dismal failure,
- but we could extend Saturday hours from eight to six, and we could extend
- at least one or two weekdays hours till an hour or two later to allow voters time to vote. So the only
- thing that I'll say is that, you know, we have been talking about the early voting hours since December.
- We are in a time crunch where we do have to- I understand we're in time crunch, but that's the problem
- of the legislature, not us. Well, I was also going to say in the hope that something good can come out
- of a bad thing that
- Perhaps this leads into the next topic, and I'm not stepping on the next topic, but just to say that
- if we're going to the 16 days, then the resources that we would have spent between the 16 and 28, that
- we might be able to use those resources to add more polling locations for election day.
- But election day is a different situation than early voting. And in this county so far, we've been about
- 50-50 for early voting versus election day. A lot of people cannot vote on election day. They have to
- go to work. And they have to perhaps work 20, 30 miles away from where they vote. So extending early
- voting hours would allow those people maybe a better time and shorten lines.
- And I don't think we can make those decisions until we actually know when or how many days we're gonna
- be voting. Hi, thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm Molly Turner King from County Legal. And I think I might
- have a possible solution that will fix this concern. So I did prepare a resolution for the board regarding
- early voting hours.
- And I could easily add language in the resolution, and I can display it if that helps, that says the
- Monroe County Election Board is aware and conscientiously following legislative proposals that may impact
- early voting hours and reserves the right to amend those established by this resolution if state legislation
- requires such. So you could adopt today, and then if the state law passes, you could amend the early
- voting hours accordingly. Probably work.
- So then I will make a motion to accept the early voting hours as proposed today so that we can move
- forward. I think we should add to that amendment subject to the results of the legislative vote on early
- voting. I guess I thought that's what we're signing, saying that it's subject to- Yeah, but it wasn't
- officially in your meeting. In your motion.
- So if I may, I just placed right there on the diocese three copies of the resolution that establishes
- early voting hours. And then I can add the language that I just mentioned, again, says the election
- board is following the legislative proposals. If it impacts these hours, you reserve the right to change
- them. So we'll get another updated. I will print it immediately after this meeting. But I'm happy to display
- the amended language on the screen if that helps to see it. That would be great for people who might
- be watching. It does seem to me that we need to make some accommodation if we're going to reduce voting
- days significantly. It may also affect the way we can hire staff.
- I'm confused. Do I accept your resolution or do I accept this one? Well, her motion is basically to
- accept this with the contingency that we may amend if needed. So I will restate the motion qualifying
- that I'd like to accept the hours as written today with the understanding that they could be amended
- pending the outcome of current legislation.
- I second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Same sign. Also make sure and correct the Schmidt on the
- SCA. I will make that correction. Pardon? I can make that correction on your referencing your name needs
- to correct it. Yes, yes. I can make that. Yes, thank you. And yours is spelled right, Carol.
- and is except the W is capitalized. So the motion passed and we will move forward. Looking for a seat.
- Sorry, sorry.
- And then we're now going to look at the election day polling locations. Great. And then on the election
- day polling locations in your packet, you also will have a sheet in there that will have polling locations.
- It will have the name of the location, the address of the location, and the precincts that will be assigned
- to those. On both sides of that, you will have the 28 location option and the 21 location option.
- into the 21 locations I'm assuming is based on your current budget? So the 21 location was a secondary
- option and was presented to the election board in December. 21 locations is what the election board
- had moved forward with until we had got some feedback from the county council after that. We, as Clerk
- Brown has said, if we do
- cut back to the 16 days of early voting, I think it would be great to move up to that 28. That a way
- that it is opening up more locations on election day for anybody who is unable to get to early voting.
- But then again, if we do go back and revise those and it is cut back to 16 days instead of 28, then
- I could see where if we're extending hours, then maybe the 21 would still be better. But once again,
- that's gonna be
- up to you guys. What is the cost of notifying every voter that you have changed all of their polling
- sites a month before the election? So a postcard will have to go out to every registered voter anyways
- before the election. We do that after voter list maintenance to ensure that everybody is up to date
- and that they have correct information.
- That would be a question for Clerk Brown, I feel, because I've not been here yet when we had to update
- some of the locations. I mean, we'd have to have a bunch of different postcards printed. We would. And
- I feel I'm not comfortable giving you a quote. I mean, it certainly isn't cheap, but it is imperative.
- And so I feel very fortunate that we have a vendor who, when we have reached out for the purposes of
- sending postcards, they do understand budget constraints. We're not the only county that they work with.
- There's another clerk that they do similar work for. And so I do feel confident that we can get a competitive
- quote and it's also,
- We're also talking about the timeliness that they will do a quick turnaround to make sure that we have
- what we need. And I guess the other question is, are we making additional efforts to allow voters to
- know that things have changed? I mean, we not only have or suggesting different polling sites, we no
- longer have an election central at the hardwares.
- Center, and it's somebody who's been around voting for many years. I know that people, you know, came
- to the Carter building for like years after we moved to the Johnson Hardware Center. Now they don't
- even have Election Central that they know where it is. And of course, the building that we have been
- voting in for early voting has disappeared. So there's going to be a lot of confusion around this election.
- You've seen that bigger postcard. You've received that bigger postcard that we've sold.
- If you recall, that does tell you where early voting is located. And it's a bigger postcard. This is
- not some little thing that could get lost among your bills. It's bigger. It's big enough to put on your
- refrigerator, which is what I do with it. But are we making additional efforts to notify voters that
- Election Central is no longer at the hardware building and that
- that your polling site might have changed beyond just sending a postcard? I certainly am confident that
- our partners will help us with getting that word out, including newspaper, media, other legal women
- voters, other nonpartisan groups, candidates themselves. So I feel like we will get out plenty of notice
- if you have a suggestion in your offering. I'm just wondering what you're considering already. I mean,
- it's the ninth hour. We certainly have our website. On your cards, you also have a number they can call
- even the day of election to let them know where to go.
- Yeah, that and then we've also worked with Richard Kreider from maintenance. He's been the one that's
- helped us with this transition to the new space. He has done some signage over at Showers as well as
- we are planning to have signage up at the old location that will direct people to the new location as
- we did for when early voting was at Napa. We had a sign that said early voting is now at this location
- with the address. We'll do the same thing as we did in the past.
- think that's going to be more so of a more communication with them. But we've also just had a meeting
- earlier this week with both party chairs, and they both are very happy with helping us on getting some
- digital graphics stuff for them both so that they can start passing out information to members of their
- parties, but then also for us to be able to send them out to, for instance, Dave Askins with B Square
- and then any other new sources within the county.
- I think it's incumbent upon us all to remember that voting is a privilege, and it's something that we
- should open ourselves up to know where we need to go, when we need to go, and how we can vote. So the
- idea of having it easy for everybody, every single day, I think is a bit extreme in my book. I think
- we just need to be silky. This is the time you can vote. Here are the days. You've got early voting
- on these days. Different ways you can do it as well.
- You've got folks who will take you to the site. So again, let's give people a chance to realize that
- they're responsible as well for this wonderful right we have. And I don't disagree with you, Mr. Chair.
- I think there's a happy medium. There will be voter education and there will be notice. And I think
- that we will adequately get the word out. You have in the past, in the past 10 years, I've been so impressed with your
- office of what you've done. So thank you. Okay. So right now we've got to select options, 21 or 20.
- Yeah. So it'll be the 21 or 28. Originally it was 22 or 29. We had one location that had decided that
- they could not be a location this year. They've had some construction going on for a couple of years.
- They were unable to be a polling location in 2024 as well. And have all the locations on both options been
- accepted and said that they can do it if we if we go with either option? On the list of the 21 they
- have approved that was something that I brought up during the County Council meeting was originally
- the election board only asked for us to go and
- get confirmation from the 22 locations. I have confirmation from those. All of them have said yes.
- On the 28, we will have to reach out to the additional individuals in order for us to communicate with
- them, which then would hold off on approving the 28 list until the March meeting when we can
- get clarification on who is willing to be applying location. And I know that
- the budget available in the election fund plays into the establishment of 21 or 28. And I was asked
- to convey to the election board that at the county council meeting last Tuesday, I think it was the
- 10th, the council had conveyed that
- there is funding available and that if once that funding is spent, if an additional appropriation is
- needed to come back to the county council, typically the county council doesn't provide an additional
- appropriation until the funds are expended and the additional is needed. So right now there is money
- in the election fund to run either 21 or 28 and if, you know,
- whatever the election board decides, if an additional amount of money is needed, then the council is
- willing to have that conversation at that time. I'm going to make a comment here that for me, and hopefully
- for Carolyn as well, the idea of having more sites than less sites makes more sense to me, giving people
- more opportunities. And if you wait too long till the March meeting, then you're going to kind of
- close that window of letting people know where they need to go. Yeah, the only worry with that is that
- if we approve this list, then we'll have to come back and amend who was not able to be a location. I
- think we could potentially do some verbiage of where, kind of like we did with the first one, where
- if a location decides that they are no longer able to be one, we could then amend the number.
- Is there a reason why we don't have confirmation from all 28? As I said, I got permission from the election
- board to contact the first 22 originally, and then it was never brought up again to go with the larger
- number. I know, but that's the one thing I have had a chance to discuss with Ms. Githins, who is the
- official. I'm serving as her proxy today, was that she doesn't believe that that's true.
- that and she definitely would approve the 28 but not the 21. I mean, we can go back to election board
- minutes and pull where it was the 22 locations that was kind of still irrelevant. It seems like that
- we should have talked to everybody. I'm going to make a motion for the 28 polling locations with the
- understanding that it could be amended should
- should a location not be willing to serve? I will second. Well, if I may, I think procedurally, it would
- be a motion to attach exhibit A with the 28 locations to the resolution.
- Oh, so it's option 228 would be exhibit A. Okay, got it. Correct. And I can't display this resolution
- because the Teams link is not working for me. So if the chair is okay with it and the board, I'd like
- to read the resolution into the meeting minutes. So this is a resolution of the Monroe County Election
- Board. It's a resolution approving poll locations and to consolidate polling places of adjoining precincts.
- Whereas pursuant to Indiana code 31184.3 permits the election board by unanimous vote to locate the
- polls for a precinct at the polls for an adjoining precinct using the precinct election board of the
- adjoining precinct to administer the election for both precincts at the same polling place. And whereas
- the Monroe County election board has found it desirable in certain precincts to consolidate the polling
- paces for adjoining precincts pursuant to Indiana code 31184.3,
- and whereas the Monroe County Election Board approves the attached list of polling sites and requests
- submission for commissioners for approval, now therefore be it resolved by the Monroe County Election
- Board that one, by unanimous vote of the election board that the polling places for the precincts named
- to be consolidated with the adjoining precincts shall be consolidated as identified in the separate
- attachment and that the consolidated precincts shall be administered by the same precinct board
- And two, Exhibit A containing a list of the polling sites and precincts is attached and incorporated
- as a part of this resolution. And two, the Monroe County Election Board approves the polling locations
- list within Exhibit A and requests submission to the Monroe County Commissioners for approval in accordance
- with Indiana code. And presented to and adopted on this day of February, 2026 by the Monroe County Election
- Board. And by statute,
- commissioners shall designate the polling locations not less than 29 days before election day. So I
- think even if you pass this and then there's a need to amend it to, because some of the 28 locations
- is not available, I think you still have time to make that amendment before you get it to the commissioners.
- I would point out that the one issue is that whereas and the second whereas is missing an E. I will
- make that correction. Other than that, I like the resolution.
- Anymore discussion on the resolution? Okay. Say aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Unanimous consent. On
- your agenda item on staffing. So can we get an update on
- staffing for early voting and voting? Do we have leads yet? Do we have recruiters? Do we have people
- who are assigned for training? And do we know who is going to be doing the training and putting packets
- together for election day and all those issues? So we have been in communication with both of the party chairs.
- One party has made most of their appointments as leads. The other party is still struggling to find
- a couple. And for recruiters, both of the recruiters have been appointed, but we are now waiting for
- the process of being added to the agenda with the county council to have approval to make those hires
- official. And as far as in-house, who's going to be doing training this year?
- Training right now, we're still communicating, but it's probably going to be split between two staff
- members. Ashley will be the main training specialist. And who is replacing Bonnie is putting together
- the blue suitcases, I guess we would call them for election day and so forth. So all of those materials
- have been prepped in the past by the part-time employees. So it'll continue to be prepped by the part-time
- employees.
- Probably covers most of it at this point. Obviously until we get leads, we can't do training and hire
- people to work and so forth. We're still waiting. We have to go through the hiring freeze process before
- we can move forward with any of those.
- actually had a meeting today with Clerk Brown about getting that added to the soonest agenda as we can,
- since I have a pretty rough estimate of numbers of what we're going to need to be able to have a robust
- election like the County Council has asked for. Okay.
- Time now for public comment on old business. Early voting hours, election day polling locations, and
- the early voting staffing. Seeing no one coming to the podium, public comment is now closed. Now for
- new business, candidate challenge, review, and motion.
- So we've received two challenges from the Democratic Party chair. Both of those are in your guys's packets.
- The first one that's going to be on top, it says that there is no seal on the can too. On that there
- was a rise seal and that was why it was unable to be detected through a scan. We do have the original
- and it does have a definitive seal on it? Correct. What would have been in the? It would have been on
- the Cantu and it would have been on the back section where it shows that there's a circle that has seal
- written in it. There is a rised seal there that is. I can see what looks like the outline of a seal.
- That's the raised seal to which you're referring. Yes.
- Sorry to interrupt, Chair. But procedurally, before you get too much into these challenges, looking
- at the administrator manual and statute, I think it requires the election board to hold a challenge
- hearing. And both notice has to be given to the challenger and the individuals who filed the challenge.
- So I don't know how much you want to get into these challenged issues today without any of those parties
- present. And have the candidates who've been challenged been notified yet?
- not to my knowledge that they have. I believe that the party chair might have, but we can continue through
- with that and look into that more.
- So I think you have until the election board would have until noon of next Thursday the 26th to resolve
- any challenges so it almost feels like we need to set a special election board meeting to notify those
- parties because then those parties have the right to present evidence and then the challenges could
- be resolved we could recess rather than
- You could recess, which would allow you then to call a special meeting. Yes. The only thing recessing
- does is not require the 48-hour notice. You would have to know the exact date and time that you're recessing
- today, or you can adjourn and we can publish the 48-hour notice. Will members have a suggestion? I would.
- contingent upon us to notify the candidates. I don't know whether it's contingent upon the, because
- I only got this last night and I didn't get the details until just now, so I don't know exactly. I didn't
- have time to figure out who is responsible for notifying the candidates, but who is? I need to do so.
- immediately. And as I know, the administration book says that, yes, you can send a certified letter,
- but you might just want to use the telephone because of the timing issues and so forth. So we need to
- know exactly who needs to make that notification and to do that, probably forthwith. Would that be the
- party chairs? I don't believe so, because we're talking about
- the opposite party making those challenges, it seems like it wouldn't be contingent upon them to also
- notify the candidates who are challenged. But as a proxy, I don't have an updated administrative book.
- I think the election board via election
- office would give notice to both the challenger and the challenged candidate. So if the challenger is
- the party chair, then they give notice. But I don't think it's contingent on the party chair to notify
- the challenged candidate. So I think that the election office should do that like today, if at all possible.
- So may I suggest that we, if we're recessing, that we recess until next Tuesday to give us the time
- to notify the challenger and the challenged.
- I will check room availability for that day. Out of town, so let me check and see when she gets back.
- Madam Clerk, is the request for 1.30 on Tuesday?
- on that decision and see if I get an answer back about when she is back. Yeah, Chairman Shielski is
- back tonight, so I know he'll be here next week. Do you know the rest of the timeline, Molly, in terms
- of decisions? I do know that they need their own representation if they choose to challenge it.
- We can't provide them with legal advice. They would be to hire an attorney. I briefly looked at the
- candidate challenge statutes. I think it's somewhat similar to hearings that we've had in the past where
- we would send a notice that says, you know, if you choose to have legal representation, it's on you.
- You have the right to present evidence. And I can, if the board directs
- at such and is okay with it, I can work with the election supervisor on drafting the appropriate notice
- letter to send to candidates, and we can get that out as soon as we know about the hearing date. And
- it appears that Ms. Githans will be back next week, so Tuesday should work.
- If you're okay with it, I'm going to run into the room right over here to make sure that this room's
- available on the 24th because I'm not getting a response to the text.
- So I'm gonna move right now and just put a hold on that candidate challenge and then we'll move to the
- public comment on item five in the agenda. And each person coming to the podium will have three minutes
- to make a public comment. Seeing no one.
- I'll close the public comment portion of the meeting. And we're now to the motion to recess or adjourn.
- We'll wait for the council to come back and then we'll... Okay. This is an opportunity to thank you,
- Mr. Chair and Ms. Carolyn for serving as proxies today. We appreciate your service and... It's been a while.
- It has been a while since you've been in the chair. How does it feel? I don't have a public comment.
- I'm just kind of, I was in the courthouse, so I decided to come and crash the election board. But I
- noticed there are individuals attending virtually that do have their hand raised. And I know that you
- just came and are the proxy as the chair today. So I figured I'd just bring that to your attention.
- It gets a little tricky.
- with the virtual attendance. I just got a text to the same effect, that there are people with online.
- I appreciate that. I didn't notice that. But OK, yes, a lot of online folks. So just control me to the
- online there. Can you hear me? Yes. Can you state your name? Yes. My name is Susan Brackney. And also
- spell it, please.
- s-u-s-a-n b-s-n-boy r-a-c-k-n-e-y. I just wanted to say the Arizona Secretary of State has publicly
- acknowledged that the upcoming midterm elections are not likely to be business as
- usual. His office is running through various scenarios that could happen just in order to make sure
- that they're prepared for the types of processes that might be necessary to preserve democracy essentially.
- There's an entire interview with him by the Atlantic from last month that you can see on YouTube
- that I highly recommend. And I would love to know that you and other officials are similarly running
- through various scenarios and putting necessary plans in place. And in the event that you're unwilling
- or unable to do some tabletop exercises around, let's say ice comes to the polling place or
- who knows what. I would just point you to a few resources that might be helpful. The University
- of Pennsylvania Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law has made the results of its own tabletop exercises
- available online. The Brennan Center for Justice released a policy report
- entitled A State Agenda for Election Security and Resiliency that may also be helpful, even though I'm
- not sure how many pro-democracy allies exist at the state level, to be honest. But it may still be useful
- locally. And then the University of Southern California Election Cybersecurity Initiative convened a
- national roundtable
- on cybersecurity related challenges and are offering some tools for 2026. The YouTube video of their
- entire proceedings is available online. And I just cannot stress enough that so much lawlessness and
- abnormality nationally is being normalized. And it is up to anyone within earshot basically
- and with a modicum of power to stand up and say, this is not normal and this is not business as usual.
- And we're going to all have to work together to safeguard our elections, protect voter rights and reclaim
- democracy from the clutches of what is honestly looking to be authoritarian rule. Thank you for the
- opportunity to comment.
- Thank you for your comments. And I think we have one more. Hello, sorry. It's interesting being on the
- side of the podium, or on the side of the day. Good afternoon. I am Jennifer Crossley. I had my hand
- raised. Excuse my appearance. I am Jennifer Crossley.
- doing some other things, and I just decided to run in here, and so I am here. So I am Jennifer Crossley,
- Monroe County Council District Four Council President, and I just wanted to thank you all for what you've
- just done in terms of making sure that our voters of Monroe County have that usual eight to six time
- frame that they are accustomed to, even in the light of things changed. I know it was mentioned that
- we have to give voters a chance and an opportunity to ensure
- that they get all the information in terms of the new voting change and how that is a privilege. However,
- as a mom of a newly minted
- voters who will be able to vote for the first time. We want to make sure that our communities and anybody
- that has that right to vote has the means and the ways of doing it. Of course, you know, making sure
- that we have, you know, radio shows, TV ads, whatever we need to do to ensure that the voters are able
- to do that in light of all the other things that are going on to make sure that our elections are free,
- safe and fair. I know last week at the
- County Council. We had a very robust conversation with Clark Brown and Ms. Farris and I really appreciate
- that and as we had mentioned that any time that the funds are used in your lines that you know you come
- back for additional appropriation. So I know that was mentioned by Ms. Turner-King but I just wanted
- to definitely reiterate that as president of the council that I am
- clear to say that all seven of us have that same sentiment to make sure that the voters of Monroe County
- are able to practice their right to go out and to vote. So I appreciate that. I know the two of you
- are proxies. Hello, and you might not be able to come back in next meeting, but I'm sure you will pass
- that information along to the powers that be. And we on the council look forward to working with our
- election board here to ensure that our primaries go off as smoothly
- and safe as possible as well as the general but the first thing that we got to get to first is our primary.
- So again I just wanted to say thank you for that was waiting and hoping that everything was passed here
- and it seems like you know what we had in good faith just went through so I appreciate that and I look
- forward to seeing how we can collaborate together and and if there's ways that council can you know
- get the word out as well we're willing to do anything and everything that we can so thank you for
- for your time. You sprinted over here? I did. I ran. I got my running shoes on, too. Oh, my goodness.
- You look perfectly lovely, as usual. Thank you for coming. My name is Cheryl Langdon. I wasn't going
- to speak today, but prompted by the two that I saw online. And I'm thankful that the gentleman brought
- that to the attention, because I kept going, even if there's two people that I think wants to speak.
- So I have nothing prepared.
- After listening to the other two individual, people that are worried about authoritarianism and so forth,
- and ICE and all that, I think that we have definitely gotten away from treating each other with civility.
- And I am specifically blaming my old party. And I find it funny that they gaslight. And Democrats need
- to stop doing that.
- Republicans have been suppressed, conservatives, for four years under Biden. So you want to talk about
- democracy? Well, I'm here to talk about a republic and that we're all supposed to be together in this.
- And to sit there and make those false accusations is just irresponsible. I feel safer knowing I have
- national guardsmen, knowing I have federal agents, knowing I have agencies
- that are here to protect me as an American, free American, I absolutely support. And I just want to
- get that two cents. Thank you. Did you sign in by the way? There isn't a paper here. So I was another
- thing, I forgot to save it. Sign in. Thank you. She stated her name, which was good. Anybody else? Public comment?
- I don't see any hands raised, but I can't see very well, so. We're good. OK. I don't see any public
- comment on there. Pardon? I don't see any. OK. And thanks to the gentleman who came up and reminded
- me that there was hands raised on the electronic piece. So I miss that. OK. Anything else for the board?
- I did confirm that the room is available on the 24th at 1.30.
- If the board is directing such, Kylie and I can work together, get the notices out, and notice that
- meeting. Is that the board's desire? So the question I have, is this a recess then until then? You can
- adjourn or recess. I'm going to publish notice regardless. And we have 48 hours. We have 48 hours. I
- would just recess anyway until Tuesday, because we know we're going to be meeting.
- to recessing I do think there was I received a comment that was confused on what the board did establishing
- early voting hours and so I was finally able to get on the team's link and so it's not gonna let me
- share I was going to share the early voting hours but I think in order to eliminate the confusion it might be
- It would be my suggestion to read the resolution that the board passed the early voting hours into the
- record and state the early voting hours. So you're OK with it. I'm happy to do that real quick. Do we
- have the updated verbiage as well? Yes. I thought she did read the resolution. I read the resolution
- for poll locations, not early voting. I would be happy if you would do that.
- This is a resolution of the Monroe County election board establishing early voting hours for the twenty
- twenty six Monroe County election. Whereas pursuant to Indiana code three eleven ten twenty six a satellite
- office may be established permit voters to cast absentee ballots up to twenty eight days prior to the
- election and including two Saturdays preceding election day.
- and whereas the Monroe County Election Board recognizes establishing early voting hours eases election
- day congestion leading to shorter lines and improved poll worker performance as well as making Monroe
- County elections accessible to all individuals who wish
- to cast a vote during the election and whereas the Monroe County Election Board wishes to establish
- early voting hours, including the two Saturdays prior to the election board or election day to provide
- voters with multiple opportunities to cast their ballots. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Monroe
- County Election Board that establishes early voting hours for the 2026 elections as depicted in Exhibit A.
- which is attached and incorporated into this resolution. The Monroe County Election Board is aware and
- conscientiously following legislative proposals that may impact early voting hours. If state legislation
- is enacted that impacts the establishment of early voting hours, the election board reserves the right
- to amend the early voting hours accordingly. Present it to and adopt it on the seventh day of February,
- 2026. And I'm sure that we will add the early voting hours to our website, but
- To read them, what's on Exhibit A is April 17th through the 10th, early voting will open up at 8 a.m.
- and close at 6 p.m. On the 13th through the 17th, it opens at 8 a.m., closes at 6 p.m. The 20th through
- the 24th, opening at 8 a.m., closing at 6 p.m. On April 25th, it opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 4 p.m.
- On April 27th to May 1st, it opens
- at 8 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. on May 2nd, 9 a.m. to 4 a.m., and on May 4th, 8 a.m. to noon. And that
- is the early voting hours for the primary. I'm happy to read the general, but it seems primary might
- be the immediate concern. I think that's all that we need. And I will reiterate that those are the same
- hours that we have been voting for the last number of years. So nothing has changed unless we need to
- do so because days get shortened.
- The resolution. Do I need to actually you want to tell people where they're going to vote early voting.
- Early voting is now in the showers building which is 501 North Morton and it's in suite 101. And then
- if you obviously have any questions you can call voter registration and that is the north side of the
- showers building. There is a parking lot there which I'm presuming there will be designated parking
- for voters.
- Yes, so along the entire front side where the sidewalk is next to the building that will all be handicapped
- as well as the street parking that will be on the side of the building as well on Morton Street that
- will also be Handicapped parking the entire parking lot there will be reserved for early voting voters
- and we are going to start communication with
- we're going to be able to get Mr. Crider from maintenance on getting some designated parking spaces
- for the poll workers themselves. Kylie, do you want to explain what's going on with the telephone system?
- So if you do call voter registration currently, we are all using county cell phones at this time.
- office phone set up currently. So if you call into our office and we're already on the line with somebody
- else, it's just automatically going to a voicemail. That voicemail is not programmed for it to say that
- it's Monroe County voter registration. It just says this caller is unavailable at this time because
- of the calls being forwarded over
- from the desk phones. We're working on that. I actually have a meeting with Mr. Kreider tomorrow to
- kind of work through some of these things in hopes to also have Great Kron brought into this mix eventually.
- And if people want to come into the election office at this time to do things in person, where do they
- need to go?
- So it's going to be the same building. It's going to be 501 North Morton Street. We're going to be in
- suite 203, and you're going to enter through door C. There are four doors to that same suite, but C
- is the one that we're using primarily for public. It is going to be on the second floor, and then there
- are signs that will point you to where voter registration is. You can see the very first sign as soon
- as you get off the elevator or the stairs. And it's going to be on the left-hand side all the way down.
- Are there no comments from the election board? No, sir. Hearing none, then I will take a motion to adjourn.
- So moved. To recess. Are we going to adjourn or recess? We'll adjourn in that case. Okay. That's fine.
- I will make the motion to adjourn. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Same side. Thank you.
- That meeting officially ends at 2 22.