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.