- The August 6 meeting of the Morrill County Election Board is called to order. Our first order of business
- is we have a plethora of minutes that we need to approve. There were some corrections made by board
- member Gibbons. We have reviewed those and those are perfectly fine. So I would entertain a motion.
- to I'm sorry, go ahead. I just wanted to make a note that all of them, but the April 9th was included
- in the packet. So that's the only one that will not be approved today is April 9th. So I think you're,
- I think it's not. So I, Mr. Chair, I will make a motion
- to approve all of the minutes with the exception of April 9th, which the board does not have. I'm sorry.
- Can you hear? OK. You know what? I can use my substitute teacher voice. No problem. I am making a motion.
- that we accept all of the minutes that have been presented to the board, that we approve all of those
- minutes with the exception of April 9th, which we do not have in our packets. I am making that motion.
- I'll second and would like to note that this includes minutes from March 31st, April 23rd, May 4th and
- 5th, May 15th. And there are two separate ones because there were two separate meetings on May the 15th.
- June the 4th and July the 10th. We don't have we don't have to call roll on this, do we? You could do
- a voice vote. OK, those in favor I. Opposed? OK, motion carries to approve minutes. Miss Kylie, the
- election supervisor update.
- So I want to start with, I'm going to be doing like a timeline of what we're going to expect to be seeing
- at the election board meetings, calling all the way up until November when the election is, but also
- in addition some behind the scenes things that happen within our office. So August 21st is the deadline
- for the Indiana election division to approve and certify the list of candidates. From then we plan and
- hope to have the review of the ballots on August 28th, but that is still to be determined
- we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and approve all of the workers who worked in the primary
- and then we will come back to approve any that are additional that will be working in the general that
- did not work in the primary. And then on September 1st we will have the early voting leads return to
- start working on recruiting all of the poll workers for early voting and then on September 3rd we will
- go ahead and approve all of the workers who worked in the primary and then we will come back to approve
- any that are
- On September 4th, that will be the first day that recruiters will begin their work for Election Day
- workers. September 8th, the return of the absentee leads. Those are the individuals who do military
- overseas and mail ballots. They will return on that day to begin their work.
- And then we also so far have to be determined the public test of the equipment on September 8th as well.
- That is also one that is still to be determined, depends on timelines with heart and making sure that
- everything is ready and back for us to do. September 19th is the day that all applications that have
- been received up until that day have to be out for mail ballots. That'll be the first batch of ballots
- that go out.
- September 19th, which is a Saturday. And then there is a special meeting of the election board that
- would be suggested on September 18th, so the day before that, and that's going to be approving all additional
- early voting workers.
- September 30th will be early voting lead training that's going to be the leads who oversee all of early
- voting we are going to be doing that a little bit differently this year instead of it being just a couple
- of hours we're going to be doing it from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. for certain parts of the training which will
- be mainly like your forms and any like
- day-to-day activities that they'll be doing and the tour of the space, and then from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.,
- we will be doing their training on all of the equipment to ensure they're comfortable and doing some
- role play with them as well. October 1st, we will be doing the early voting training. That is going
- to be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and then a second class, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. There will be a second day of
- training, which will be October 2nd, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and a 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and then first day of
- early voting will be October 6th.
- Thank you, ma'am. You guys have been busy. Mr. Crider, do you have an Election Central update for us?
- Good afternoon, board members. It's been a minute. As we're approaching early voting and the general
- election, Ms. Farris asked me to come in and give an update on the Election Central space, sent me a
- list of items.
- got my own running list of tasks, and I don't want to get out into the weeds on them individually, but
- I've kind of categorized it into new business, old business, and warranty repairs. So I'm working with
- contractors and our maintenance team to have all that wrapped up by September 4th. And also, I want
- to update that
- I'm submitting an order for the 30 chairs in election central, a new refrigerator, water cooler for
- the kitchen, but I have been informed that we're not allowed to provide microwaves, so I did just learn
- that. And regarding the early voting office furniture, unfortunately, I'm not gonna have that by the
- general election. So I'm going to ask that you guys use what you used
- during the primary and if you need support with additional tables and chairs, please let me know and
- I'll do what I can do. Do you have any questions? Is it that the county will pay for a microwave or
- that there can't be a microwave in the building? No, there can be microwaves. The county won't pay for it.
- I have a couple questions with furniture, because we have individuals who are currently working off
- of folding tables. With them not having drawers that are able to lock, is there a potential way of us
- to be able to get some filing cabinets that have keys with them? The ones that we have currently are
- ones that have been passed around different departments around the county. None of them do have locks,
- so if there are sensitive materials, we would like to be able to keep those locked in those spaces that
- those individuals use them, so that we're not having to go back and forth
- in the ballot room during early voting for the fall, uh, election. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think we can
- work on that. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Okay. We moved to, uh, again, still
- an old business, uh, a complaint from the primary miss Molly. Where are we? Where are we on?
- So I think some of this discussion goes into also new business. I think this references a complaint
- that was received by the election board during the primary relating to candidate Ms. Trimble. And so
- at the time the complaint was originally received, the election board voted to table the complaint.
- And so to kind of go into the next discussion as well,
- the election board needs to decide on how they want to proceed with that particular complaint at this
- time. Based on yes, based on what we received from and correct me if I'm wrong, Kylie, you
- did the communication from the election division. There.
- decision or their conclusion was that. We don't have a we don't have a violation of state election law
- here. So if we don't think we have a violation of law, we have no reason to hear. So I'm going to read
- just a portion of that email.
- so that it's a better understanding. On that, it says, remember that the burden is on the person filing
- the complaint to show the county election board that the candidates violated an election law, including
- providing enough information in their complaint for the board to find that there is a substantial reason
- to believe that an election law violation has occurred.
- is occurring or will occur, so the board can make an investigation and order a hearing under IC code
- 3-6-5-31. And then with that, I wanted to present that information to you, the election board, so that
- you guys can make the decision. If you believe that there was enough information supplied in the complaint,
- I will say that with it not having any IC codes relating to which violation or Indiana electional law,
- That was violated. I feel like that the thing goes back to you guys whether or not you feel like there
- was enough information Molly did suggest that Holding a hearing and asking the person who filed the
- complaint to provide information and if there is none then it's done there Mr. Chair, yes, ma'am Thank
- you, Kylie I
- I am going to the third line of what we received, which says, we do not have a law that makes it illegal.
- I assume the word 2 should be in there, to offer property in exchange for signing a petition. And that
- I want to say I do not see why we should
- have a hearing in this manner. And I would make a motion that we dismiss the complaint. I would like
- to also point out that following what the clerk just read, it says that it would be up to the prosecutor
- to determine if they
- I'm not sure that this is working correctly to determine they read one of our election crimes or find
- some other criminal provision in a different title of state code and have evidence that the candidate
- violated the law. So it seems to me that it would require the election board to forward it to the prosecutor
- for the prosecutor to determine whether or not there was a violation. And that's exactly what we did
- with the complaints against the additional complaints against Mr. Davis.
- I don't see it that way. Mr. Chair, I'm open to what you have to say. There's something missing that
- doesn't even allow for the making of a decision as we did with a different candidate. We had tons of
- supporting documentation and codes. I spoke with another county attorney regarding that other person.
- There doesn't appear to be anything that we can take to a prosecutor, to me. But if we held a hearing,
- wouldn't the complainant have the opportunity to present information at that point? Well, the complainant
- still has an opportunity. Molly, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I think from my communications with the Indiana
- election vision, the procedure would be for the board to determine whether
- It has a reasonable belief that an election law has been violated to warrant a further hearing. And
- then the hearing is governed by due process, the petitioner or complaint and gets the opportunity to
- present evidence. The candidate in question would have the opportunity to present evidence. When I spoke
- to the Indiana election division, what they advised me was, should this complaint be on a future agenda,
- the board would follow IC 36531, which is the investigation
- um, statute that I just referenced to determine whether a hearing and investigation is warranted. Um,
- and then the Indiana election division identified two IC codes, one of which is the definition of property
- within title 35, specifically 35 3152 253.
- and indicated the board would need to determine if advice constitute property and therefore violated
- IC code 31421. And so I think right now the question for the board is, does the board have a reasonable
- belief so that they feel a hearing is warranted to determine if additional steps such as forwarding
- the matter to the prosecutor is warranted? Mr. Chair, I do not.
- I am one of three. I am only speaking for myself. I do not believe there is enough here to warrant a
- hearing. I have seen some of Ms. Tremble's Facebook posts about this. And she is now trying to claim
- that there was a joke that she offered to provide advice. But she's the one that posted these things.
- Nobody else did.
- Well, therein lies the problem. This elected official has no social media. I don't know parts of social
- media. I don't know anything about that. What I am saying is what has been presented to us, I do not
- believe that we have enough to justify a hearing. And so I am going to make the motion that we dismiss
- this and let the voters decide.
- I guess I would like for us to provide an opportunity from Ms. Sharp to present that evidence if it
- exists. Because she wasn't required to present it to file the complaint, is my understanding.
- That is correct. I agree with that. Is there any reason that if... Molly, again, I'm kind of deferring
- to you on the legal questions here. Is there any reason that if we support this motion,
- that Miss Sharp couldn't take the same complaint to the prosecutor and say, here's a violation of law.
- In my mind, you decide what you want to do. I'm not interested in getting into the business in this
- board of he said, she said, let's fuss about it. I left sixth grade when I retired from sixth grade.
- I don't need that stuff. I could check to see if the complaintant could take
- Report directly to the prosecutor typically There's a step that involves reporting it to law enforcement
- The statute does state that election law violations should be referred to the board But I don't know
- if that means exclusively and that Complaintance couldn't then reach out to like law enforcement or
- the prosecutor. So I'd have to check on it. I
- And I would note for this specific complaint, this is not a complaint that would result in the removal
- of the candidate from the ballot. And I say that because it's different than another complaint that
- you will be considering later today. The complaint that you will be considering later has a specific
- timeline for which that complaint has to be resolved because it does impact what's on the ballot.
- Because this complaint is not of the same nature and would not remove the candidate from the ballot,
- it doesn't have to be resolved by that timeline. So if you wanted to have me do further research and
- table it to a September meeting or a later time to determine whether you want to take that next step
- of setting a hearing, the board has that flexibility. Go ahead.
- I am just keeping the discussion, just making sure that the discussion is had. It seems to me that if
- you are going to file a complaint with the board, that for us to consider a hearing, you would make
- sure it would be overwhelming. And I'm not saying present evidence or anything, but there is overwhelming,
- why wouldn't we have a hearing?
- what laws have been violated or here's what crimes have been committed. I don't see that. So rather,
- the board is going to have plenty of business between now and election day. And if this isn't going
- to remove the candidate, let the voters decide. Does that make sense? I tend to go along with you on
- that, let the voters decide.
- Is there a statute of limitations on something like this? I mean, it wouldn't be between now and November
- if there is. I'd have to check specifically on the statute of limitations for elections. I mean, I know
- the statute of limitations for criminal offenses, but since it's a different title, I would want to
- definitely check. If this is not going to affect the ballot, which it is not, and I'm
- before on this board have voted, let the voters decide. I think I'll second your motion and we'll just
- let the voters make the decision. Let the parties involved do their campaigning and state what they
- believe to be fact and then let the voters decide. Go ahead. I guess I would like to give Ms. Sharp
- an opportunity to bring evidence, if there is evidence, that we do
- consider this at our September meeting, if she has evidence. As I said a few minutes ago, when she filed
- the complaint, it was not my understanding that you have to provide evidence at that time. The evidence
- is given at the hearing. That's what our practice has been at least. Would it be outside of our scope
- to ask if Ms. Sharpe can come and publicly say,
- Yes, I have evidence. And if you set a hearing, I'll present it. Or the complaint is, or what I've submitted
- is on its face what you need to consider. And if she can say that, then we can set a hearing. If she
- cannot say that, let's move on.
- to go inquire with Ms. Sharp. I don't think in the past we have done such, but I don't think there's
- anything that excludes from doing it in this instance. I think in the past we've just considered the
- received documentation and the complaint on its faced and the board used that to determine if a reasonable
- belief existed for a future hearing. Mr. Chair, what does not make sense to me
- because the county attorney has cited criminal code. This is not criminal code. It does not make sense
- to me, and this is not the first time that it has happened, where we are saying that the Indiana election
- division gave us one piece of guidance and gave a county attorney a different piece of guidance. That
- is not making sense to me at all. And if there's going to be this disparity
- then I'd rather err on not making it harder on a candidate. They're going to be on the ballot. The voters
- are going to decide. I'm not aware of any crime, and I'm sitting here looking at a sentence that says,
- we do not have a law that makes it illegal to offer property in exchange for signing a petition. I didn't
- create this.
- I was given it. It does have his name on it. He's not prone to put his name on something that he doesn't
- stand behind. So I'm hopeful that I am making sense. But I'm also open. She's in the building, as I
- understand. If she wants to come up and say anything that could persuade the board one way or the other,
- I'm still listening. But if this is what we have, then I'm moving forward with my motion.
- I guess it comes down to me for whether or not this offer to provide a service is falls under the definition
- of property for the state because in what was provided to us today and the second highlighted thing
- says pays or offer to pay an individual any property based on the number of signatures obtained to place
- a candidate or public question on a ballot. So if there was in fact a service
- Does that fall under the definition of property? And for me, she made the offer publicly. It's in writing.
- Under this part of the election law and that we should at least hear it and decide whether or not to
- forward this to the prosecutor. And to clarify any discrepancy between the advice that Mr.
- Kylie received first the advice I received. It does cite the same IC code 31421. The reference to criminal
- code is the definition of property, specifically because of item five, which is highlighted. You have
- to determine what constitutes property to determine if there was an offer to pay an individual any property.
- I hate to keep sending you back to looking code. I apologize for that. The definition of property is
- critical here. It is. Which is why I printed this code out in advance.
- So 3531.5 to 253 defines property as, except as provided in subsection C, property means anything of
- value. This term includes a gain or advantage or anything that might reasonably be regarded as such
- by the beneficiary, real property, personal property, money, labor, and services, intangibles, commercial
- instruments, written instruments concerning labor, services, or property.
- Written instruments otherwise of value to the owner, such as public record, deed, will, credit card,
- or letter of credit, a signature to a written instrument, extension of credit, trade secrets,
- contract rights, choices in action, and other interests in or claims to wealth, electricity, gas, oil,
- and water, captured or domestic animals, including birds and fish, food and drink, human remains,
- and data. This has been around a while, hasn't it?
- I'm sorry. This is dry up. Yes. Okay. Okay. So Mr Chair. If I just exchange the word property for anything
- of value, then I read this sentence to me. We do not have a law that makes it illegal to offer anything
- of value in exchange for signing a petition.
- to my understanding. That's different. We can do semantics for as long as you guys are willing to stay
- here. I've made my point. I'm arguing with myself over that definition, OK?
- Because of that definition, maybe it would be a better term. I hate to bring her in here, but I would
- almost love to hear from Ms. Sharp an explanation or a clarification, a elaboration of this. And that's
- what I'm saying. I'm open to listening to that.
- understanding that that's why we would have a hearing is to allow her to do that. We wouldn't be substituting
- anything she said today for a hearing. And it would probably be more fair to give an advance notice
- of a hearing so she would have more time to prepare. Okay if people speak out out of turn I will have
- them removed.
- We're having a hearing. This is not a football game. I don't need your opinions until you get to the
- microphone. So let me be clear. So Indiana code 314-2-1, if they knowingly do any of the following,
- they commit a level 6 felony. And it names all, sorry, it names all of those things. The definition,
- we're talking about did she pay somebody for the signatures, which is not against, you can pay somebody
- to collect signatures for you. She, as it sounds like you're saying, offered to exchange a service or
- something of value.
- I don't know. I feel like I'm not getting something across that I need to be getting across.
- But the point is. She can. She can offer a service she can she can. Say it would be on whoever she offered
- the service to to
- this was committed, a crime was committed, or I was bribed, or whatever. I'm not interested in having
- laws be violated and going unpunished. But I'm also not interested in going down rabbit holes when we're
- not completely sure of the definitions. Definitions matter.
- That's why I'm kind of keep up in the youth, Molly. Yeah, I mean, at this point, I think what I would
- advise is that maybe we need clarity from the Indiana Election Division, and because this is not a time
- sensitive complaint, this could be tabled to the September meeting. I can call the Indiana Election
- Division, get clarity, provide the election board a meeting or a memo in advance of the September meeting,
- and then you can decide how to go from there.
- at least thinking I can see it. Go ahead. I was just going to say the way that I'm reading it and the
- way that others are reading it is that this is saying you can't pay someone to sign your petition, but
- you can pay someone to collect signatures. OK, that may be. And that's the way that I'm reading the
- post is if you are wanting the service, I will be requesting that you get signatures, collect signatures,
- not sign my sheet.
- That's the way that I'm reading it, just wanted to add in. I would like that to be clear. I mean, what
- you said was clear, but I'd like to have that clear from the election commission. Are you two OK with
- tabling till September so we know? Tabling whether to have a hearing till September so we know from
- the election commission.
- So we know if this did indeed occur, is this a violation of state law? If this is not a violation of
- state law, then we have nothing. Again, if it's a violation, I want to push it on. If it's not, there's
- no reason to rest with it. I move that we table the discussion on whether or not to have a hearing until
- September, at which point that would not be the hearing in September.
- would make that clear. Yes, that would not be the hearing. Because it is not necessarily time sensitive
- because it doesn't affect the ballot. Correct. Does that work for you? Not really. I think I will second
- the table until we can find out. Call the roll on the table for me, please, Ashley.
- This is on tabling the motion to dismiss the complaint, correct? No. I thought you said a motion on
- whether we should have a hearing. A motion to table. Yeah, table the motion that you had made about
- dismissing. Table them. But Clarity, I think the motion is to table the discussion on whether to proceed
- with the hearing until the September meeting and for
- Um. Purposes of tabling that would be the September 3rd meeting of the election board. Thank you,
- thank you. Go ahead Ashley. No Danny Shields, yes. Penny Givens, yes. So that discussion is tabled until
- the September 3rd. I believe you said meeting. OK, so.
- I hate to say I direct this. I would request that your office and Kylie's office reach out to reach
- out to the election commission and say, if this happened, is this a considered property? Is this considered
- a violation? Please, thank you. Okay, so now we do have
- new challenges that were received. Kylie, go ahead. So these are going to be the can one challenges.
- These are a challenge against a candidate on the ballot who has filed. This is also the deadline to
- receive these is tomorrow at noon. So these are just what we have at this time.
- The one that we have that I'm going to bring up the one about Mr. Davis running as a write-in candidate.
- So all, I believe, five of these can ones that we have today are in regards to the same candidate. Yes,
- absolutely. He can call this law whatever he wants to call it. This is not tomato tomorrow. And I'm sure
- in state code, it doesn't say the Indiana sore loser law. I mean, there's a code number to it.
- Is he eligible? The question is, is he eligible to run as a write-in under that law? So I think that
- is the question for hearing. I think what we're determining today is based on the receipt of the KN1s,
- do the election board want to proceed to a hearing on those
- on that issue. So today's more so accepting the challenges to then schedule the hearing. I mean, we
- have to make a decision on this one. We have to make a decision on this one. Let's just make this simple.
- Let's go ahead and set a date for a hearing. Is your preference to have a separate meeting or to put
- this in the September 3rd and we bring sandwiches?
- We have to have it decided by week from tomorrow at noon, don't we? Is it the 14th, Kyla? The date to
- receive the complaints or make the challenges is August 7th at noon. The date for the challenges to
- be resolved is August 14th. Yes. I am going to make a motion that we accept the complaints at today's
- meeting and then the end of
- our week at Election Central is very busy next week, so did we talk about the 11th and 12th? Yeah, we
- had discussed it 11th and 12th, which is Tuesday and Wednesday next week. That will also have to determine
- on availability of this space. I will say on Tuesday, though, morning would be better due to activities
- going on within the office.
- I would make a motion for either Tuesday or Wednesday, obviously, dependent upon the availability of
- the space for a morning meeting. Seconded. OK. Do you have a preference on the date? No. And it'll be
- a hearing. Correct. Do you have a preference on the date? The only issue I run into is I have 15-year-old
- drivers at 3 o'clock on Wednesday.
- So I can tell you. That's fine with me. Is it more likely to be open early Tuesday or Wednesday morning?
- When I say Tuesday, Wednesday, it's interchangeable. I'd love to go Tuesday at 9 o'clock if we could.
- I was going to ask Mr. King, is there a timeline we have to worry about in terms of notifying Mr. Davis?
- For clarity, there are more than there are more canon one challenges than to just Mr. Davis. So you
- I'm unclear if the motion is to set all the can one hearings for whatever date we are about to select
- because I believe isn't that isn't his the only one that determines being on the ballot. And is that
- the date that we have to have by the 14th? Yes, all five of them are for the same candidate.
- But I believe what she's asking is, are we reviewing all five or just one of those Can One challenges
- that were filed, since they're all for the same candidate? That is not what I was asking. I believe
- there are other candidates for which there are Can One challenges. No. Oh, OK. All right, never mind
- then. It is just Mr. Davis.
- Are you guys are you two okay with nine o'clock Tuesday morning if the rooms available? I will have
- to send mr. Davis notice and in that notice if you at the direction of the election board I will be
- including the copies of the can one the IC codes that I think are pertinent which I believe are Indiana
- code 3812 and then the IC code for the sore loser law and so I
- I almost think Wednesday's the better day to ensure that we can get notice out an adequate time for
- him to receive it because I would also it's the next item listed on the agenda would want to include
- rules and procedures for the hearing. I'm okay with Wednesday morning if you guys are. I'm sure it's
- going by certified mail but once again I am also offering I will drive it to his
- residents to be sure that he has something in hand. I can do that today. Last time I emailed it to him
- and asked for a delivery receipt in addition to the certified mail. I would counsel you to send certified
- mail as well because of our experience. We always send the certified mail. Because of our experiences.
- So tentatively we will set this for Wednesday August 12th at 9 a.m. Assuming we can get the room.
- Please send that out. I hesitate to some extent to say we don't need. The show and tell we got the last
- one of those. Okay, we don't need that. You know this is a question of state law period end of story. So.
- I would appreciate that going in as well. I think the letter does indicate, though, that he has the
- right to present evidence. And so I don't know that we can caveat and limit it, unfortunately. Yeah,
- OK. So I will send Mr. Davis, just for clarity, at the direction of the election board, a letter advising
- him that the hearing is being set for August 12 at 9 AM, a copy of the Can One challenges.
- the IC codes 3812 and then the IC code for the sore loser law. And then once you adopt rules and procedures,
- a copy of the rules and procedures. That works. And let's move right on to your copies. I have a resolution prepared.
- resolution. That adopts rules and procedures. It is the exact same rules and procedures that you used
- for the June 4th hearing, except when you adopted this resolution for the June 4th hearing, it was specific
- for June 4th. So what I did was indicate that we have had received some complaints and it references
- IC code 36531 and 3812. That's both the complaint and this challenge.
- And then it establishes rules and procedures. But I indicated in the third whereas clause that the election
- board for efficiency wishes to use these established rules and procedures for the current pending complaint
- challenges and any future complaint challenges unless otherwise identified by the election board to
- simply prevent you from having to do adopt rules and procedures for every hearing. This is what we used
- last time. So there's no surprises. I can gladly go through the eight items if you'd like.
- But in summary, it gives the complaint an opportunity to present gives the candidate an opportunity
- to present. And then. Identifies that the election board will close the hearing and make a decision.
- I will make a motion to accept the procedures as we have been given. I will second. Yes, go ahead question.
- Does this cover all five complaints?
- Yes, so this would apply to all the complaints currently pending against any candidate and then any
- future complaints or challenges for any candidate. I do think the election board can indicate whether
- they will be hearing five separate hearings or if it will be all combined in one. I think given it's
- the same candidate, it makes sense to do one hearing. And it's all the same complaint. It's just by
- different people. Yeah. OK.
- We have a motion. Go ahead. Clerk Brown? Yes. Danny Shields? Yes. Penny Givens? Yes. Okay, thank you.
- Procedure to handle challenges received after the meeting and before the election, August 7th. So I
- added this to the agenda to just cover any procedure.
- In the event that the election office receives a complaint after this board meeting is adjourned and
- before the deadline at noon, we would have to have a hearing on that challenge. And so my recommendation
- is the board advise adopt that any hearings received between the end of this meeting and noon tomorrow
- will also be heard on the August 12th date and then
- I don't know that I anticipate receiving any new complaints, but I mean, given the quickly approaching
- deadline for resolving these complaints, I don't know that you have time to have a second hearing if
- we get a new
- I'm no statistician. What are the odds of someone submitting a complaint after they all knew we were
- going to be together, that this was a publicly called meeting and this was their chance to where they
- have a captive audience. So I'm fine with that, but what are the odds of us getting that?
- Yeah, I'll say I agree. The only time that we really see any last minute filings or candidate filings,
- and those are generally because they're waiting to that last minute to file their candidacy paperwork
- so that they're kind of one of those last minute entries. Are you OK with adding any other complaints?
- The morning and authorizing Mr King to send out notice. So yes, if you get other other challenges,
- that will go Mr Davis at nine and. Anything else that comes would be. Following directly after. Do you
- need a motion on that? I think that makes it cleaner. If there's a motion that I will move that we have
- a any other. Canada complaints. Follow the. First be of the 10 o'clock went on August 12th.
- Authorized, Ms. Turner-King. Yeah, you are authorized to do your magic. Ashley. Clerk Brown. Yes. Danny
- Shields. Yes. Penny Givens. Yes. Do you have to rehearse that, Ashley? Do you have to rehearse that?
- No. OK, good. OK. Approval of general election staff.
- you have anything for us on that or? Yeah, so yes, the last two items in your packet are going to be
- won a letter from the Democratic Party chair for their appointees and the email from the Republican
- Party chair for their appointees. This is going to include ABS leads, early voting leads and Election
- Day recruiter. I will state that the Republican Party has filled all of their open spots. The Democratic
- Party is still one short on their early voting lead.
- If we can get that between now and Tuesday, can we add that to the agenda after the hearings have concluded?
- I'm looking at Molly for that one. I was unaware that you were approving election staff today, so I
- do not have a resolution to approve such prepared. I can prepare it for the 12th. Then would we have
- to notice a separate meeting or can we just?
- reconvene this meeting on the 12th then also. I would just recommend doing a notice. It can be all one
- notice, a notice of the public hearing and a notice of the election board meeting. You would just have
- to close the public hearing before having general business of the election board. Let's do that.
- That's fine. That works. And that gives time for the party chair. Can you reach out to the party chair
- and let them know that got a little bit grace until Tuesday.
- Yeah, I'll let them know that they have a extended time. This wire was received this morning, so I'll
- contact her. Thank you. OK, we need. For our public comment, we have a Mr Burton. We have. Yes, we have
- a vendor on who has been upgraded to a panelist who wanted to address the election board.
- Good afternoon, members of the election board. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can. Thank you so much
- for your time. I'm Jeremy Burton and my firm represents Elector Learning. And it's a company that does
- one thing, custom online poll worker training for election workers. And we're based in Tampa, Florida,
- founded specifically
- and everything they build is designed around the real challenges of training people who only work a
- few days a year. I was able to demonstrate the product to your staff. They've already seen the platform.
- I'm simply here today to introduce the company to the full board and answer questions. Here's why offices
- though, benefit though, consistency, every worker,
- gets the same training, no more variation, accessibility available anytime, anywhere, accountability
- with clear reporting and grading. And it complements what you already do. We had a great conversation
- with the staff and we see some real cost benefits long-term and just poll worker recruiting even a tool
- for poll worker recruitment. And I wanted to bring this to the board's attention today
- Just so I could offer the opportunity to have a demonstration set up in the election office and members
- of the board could come see it as well, as you consider making this improvement to your election training,
- which is already doing really well in Indiana, but
- Monroe County could be the first in Indiana to adopt this online poll worker training model that's been
- designed and being used all around the country, just not here in Indiana yet. There are some counties
- who have sort of developed their own online training, but this training, which will be customized,
- specialized for Monroe County is a unique opportunity. And I think the staff was impressed with it.
- And I am happy to take in your questions and I thank you for your
- a couple of minutes here on your meeting. I can add some information. So when Jeremy came to the office,
- he was able to meet up with the individual who works really on the company side of things. And we got
- to meet the individual and also just get to see how everything works with this software. We
- had discussions within the office during and after having the meeting with him, and this is something
- that we think would be exciting to add to Monroe County, but also definitely want all of the election
- board to be able to have a view on it and have some ideas on it.
- something that we're not necessarily looking for for this year, but something definitely to think about
- for next year, coming into the next election, and allowing that to be something that the next clerk
- can have a decision on as well. With this, it has amazing benefits to it. One thing that we were looking
- at with this is we could use this as a supplement to our training so that they have all of their forms
- and day-to-day, what
- their task and outline is going to look like for that day, all of that be on their online portion. And
- then we have an in-person session where they have hands-on experience with the equipment, really get
- into detail with the equipment as well, but then also be able to answer those questions that they have
- and be able to offer more open house kind of settings where if somebody doesn't feel comfortable with
- the equipment, they can come in at any time to work on that equipment and be able to be more comfortable
- going into election day.
- Mr. Chair, just to- Go ahead, Nicole. Mr. Chair, and certainly Jeremy can speak for himself. The only
- thing that I would add to what Kylie said, Mr. Jeremy is too modest to tout his own accomplishments,
- but he has been a longtime professional in the election world and is very familiar with
- I think it would be well worth the board's
- that you have to purchase anything. Just looking to see if it might be a good fit, as Kylie said, to
- supplement. Certainly not taking away from the in-person training that has become so imperative to Monroe
- County. Sorry about that, Mr. Jeremy, didn't mean to step on you. Well, thank you so much, Madam Clerk,
- for the kind words. It's my honor to have worked with Monroe County elections for so many years. I love
- elections.
- And one of the things, Kylie, we talked about in her office is using this online training for your poll
- worker recruiters to be able to go ahead and message the people who say they want to be poll workers.
- Then they can go ahead and do the hard work questions and tests that the state has around election law
- using the app and take quizzes on it.
- And then they can use the in-person time to be more effective with the online training, walking through
- scenarios that are difficult. Getting through all the initial training to the real world practice is what the
- it'd be most valuable to use for the in-person training. And if someone doesn't fill out the online
- training, it means they're really not interested anyways. And so I think it's a good way to make your
- in-person training more effective, but also as an effective recruiting tool. And I'll work with Kylie
- and we'll set up a time in the office that the board can come look at the product. I think this is something
- the board cares about.
- and wants to have a long-term view to make sure it keeps getting better and more effective. Thank you.
- I will also, there is another key feature to this that he reminded me of. You can create groups inside
- of this software. So we could have groups for the inspectors, groups for the judges, groups for the
- clerks, and be able to give them certain information that is key to them. But then also on election
- day, if there's something they need to go back to, they can use that app to go back to that and check,
- OK, this is where that was. And this is the information that I can quickly get to. But in addition to
- the binders that we present to the inspectors so that they have both
- those if they're in a dire situation where they need that immediately. Or, for instance, reaching out
- to inspectors on election day. An easy, quick way to have just a group and we can send them a message
- and say, hey, this is what's going on. Make sure that you're doing these steps and these procedures.
- Or if there's any kind of weather coming in, we can reach out to the inspectors through that as well.
- Because on our poll books that we have, we have the message feature where we can send out to every poll
- book, but that doesn't guarantee that the inspector is going to see that message because they're not sitting
- out a poll book. So it's adding that extra layer of communication that we can get in there on top of
- being able to use it for the training and also using it for the recruiters to be able to streamline
- their recruiting process and automatically getting them started on that training and then getting to
- sign up for that in-person training to go more in-depth and spend more time on the hands-on and in real-time
- situations that can happen and give us more time to have more of like a role-play situation inside
- of the training in person since we are already running out of time in our training some of the times
- and other times if it's a group of inspectors or judges or clerks who've done this over and over and
- over again and they already know most of the information then they're getting that first portion that
- we really spent a lot of time on during training out of the way before they even show up to training.
- I struggle to have too much training.
- Any comments? I just wanted to ask, again, the name of the company. Yes, ma'am. It's called ElectSure,
- all one word, training. And it is the best in the country. Major jurisdictions and small all around
- the country are using it today. And it's a growing company in Indiana. So thank you. I like that name.
- That's funny.
- All right. Thank you, sir. Very much. Unless you guys have something else. No, thank you, Jeremy. Okay,
- then we will open the two other public comment. If you have some come to the to the lectern and sign
- in, please. There might not be paper up there.
- Yes, yeah, restart the clock, please. Since she was getting paper restart her 3 minutes, please.
- Am I good? Yes, it's been reset. Yes, I see that. OK, I just want to start off by saying I don't mind
- if you guys have 50 more meetings or hearings over if I violated the state code because I did not. There
- will not be one piece of evidence presented because I didn't receive.
- a sheet of signatures, one signature, not a dollar, nothing for the help and advice that I offered the
- taxpayers to tell them the public information that's on the Department of Local Government Finances
- website that they are allowed to access. Anybody can talk about the tax assessment system. So I'm not
- worried about that, have 20 more. There's not gonna be any evidence. What I do wanna say is I'm very concerned
- that you, Danny Shields, a sitting member of this board, you have for over a year targeted me, attacked
- me in person to people. You've approached people on social media. You've text people in person. You've
- told them to stay away from me, don't support me, not have anything to do with me.
- actually threatened people within your own party that if they supported me, there would be retaliation
- against them. And you attended a signature event in Ellisville to see who showed up. So that's very
- concerning to me that a member of this board that has anything to do with my candidacy has been treating
- me this way. Although you have yet to have one conversation with me. That's the only thing I want to
- say other than
- I'm not even going to address anything, so I'm not surprised by you. I don't even know how you're allowed
- to have anything to do with Monroe County. After our current jail justice center debacle, you should
- have no input with this county at all. And I do want to just thank Nicole Brown, because you're the
- only sitting member up here with common sense and integrity. And that's all I have to say.
- There's a lot of, first of all, quite an imagination there, thank you. The meeting that I attended,
- here's how I attended the meeting. I had five hours of 15-year-old drivers that morning and drivers
- in. I went home at two o'clock, I got my trailer, I went to Menards,
- and I bought $400 worth of treated lumber, including pieces 14 feet long. Anybody that's carried pieces
- of lumber that low know what it weighs. I took it home, I put it up on the deck to work on it. I said
- to my wife, let's just go to the Chinese restaurant in the Wiesman Plaza, because by now it was 6.15
- or so. I drove into the parking lot of Wiesman Plaza,
- I drove up the first row of parking. There was no place to park. I made a circle around again. I came
- up and did find a parking place. I walked out of the car, went across the street, remembered I forgot
- my phone, went back and got the phone. We went into the restaurant where we spent about 35 minutes having
- dinner. I walked back out. We got in the car and I left. If that's attending your signing, if that's
- attending your signing, you do have quite an imagination. Okay?
- In the letter that you sent and by the way nice AI letter. I appreciate that. It said we sat in the
- car and watched. We sat in the restaurant and had dinner. OK, so you can continue. You can make up all
- the stuff you want to make up. I don't care. I don't care. But. We're not going anywhere. OK.
- guess who was the one that made the motion to table the complaint against you when it was originally
- filed that's fine that's fine so that's if that's attending a meeting going to a restaurant that happened
- to be in the same parking i guess everybody in in who's your bar and grill attended the meeting that night
- everybody in IGA attended the meeting that night. If that's what it takes. So go ahead, ma'am. Next.
- Ma'am. I love it. Thank you. Well, you know, we've known each other for a couple years. I understand.
- Restart the clock for us. Thank you. I'm Regina Moore. I've been on all sides of elections, candidate,
- party officer. I
- I think I fairly much understand the process. This is a part of a message that I sent to you the night
- of the election in May. And it says, first off, we voted in a new location today. And much to my surprise,
- it was easy, good parking, accessible. My husband's using a rolling walker, and he
- found it to be really easy to get in and out. So thank you for that. The staff was friendly, happy.
- We got hugs. It was wonderful. Younger people staffing the polls. I thought it was great. But I wanted
- to tell you just a little story from today. It happened to me, who should have known better. But if
- it could happen to me, it can happen to anyone with maybe a much different consequence. This is what
- I posted today on social media. Did you ever spoil your ballot?
- I should have known better. I should have followed my instinct. After voting for state convention delegates
- on the ballot, I counted them up and I found that I had voted for 23 instead of 22 as instructed on
- the ballot. The person checking a ballot at the machines, I said, I spoiled my ballot and I need a new
- one. And she said, well, let's put it in the machine and see what happens. So I did. The machine spit
- out the ballot.
- And the screen message said that I had overvoted in race X. That was the convention delegates. She said,
- your ballot will still count if you press the screen button that said, count my ballot anyway.
- So I did it. I knew that it was a mistake. I knew that I should have asked for a new ballot. I should
- have insisted it.
- But I didn't. I listened to the little lady that was there, and I should have known better. So I don't
- think that any of my votes counted at all on that line. Now, it's state convention delegate. It's not
- that big of a deal. However, we do have other races where at large there may be four or five people
- running. You vote for three.
- If I had over voted on that and said, count it, count it, it still wouldn't have counted. So I think
- that I want to offer any assistance I have that I could give you in helping the election staff know
- about these kinds of
- little things that can happen. I'm happy to help train. I'm happy to help tell my cautionary tale. I'm
- happy to help do anything I can to make this situation never happen again. It wasn't, as I said, it
- wasn't critical this time, but it could be in other elections. So I just wanted to let you know about
- that. Let you know that there was a little snafu down at the Boys and Girls Club, but it worked out
- okay and just offering my help. So thanks so much. I think you all know how to get in touch with me.
- and I'm happy to help if I can. Oh, and one more question. The elect sure training that you just talked
- about, just heard about, how is that tied in or is it sanctioned by the state of Indiana? Is it sanctioned
- by the state election board? I have a question about that. Thanks. So Mr. Chair, if I may, for my dear
- friend Regina Moore, we've known each other for a number of years now. I know that you know, so I'm
- probably preaching to the choir that
- when the time comes for the election board to reconcile ballots and adjudicate ballots, if it is that
- race, so the state delegate race, we all come together and we look and if we can determine what you
- meant and we get messages, we get, I meant this one with an arrow or things like that, then we will
- do our best to take what you gave us
- and do that so if you voted for 23 but you meant you needed to vote for 22 if for the third one you
- were said not this one we see that and we're like okay she didn't mean that and we can reconcile in
- real time your vote if we can't and we certainly had some races where we were like I they voted for
- both of them and we all had to say we don't know who they mean
- vote. And if we don't make a determination, then we just throw out that race. The rest of your ballot
- council. I want to reassure you, my dear friend that your ballot was counted at least through that race
- up until that race as you intended it. If we couldn't make a determination and I don't know now, I've
- slept a little bit since the primary. Um then it would have just been the delegate race that was thrown out. I'm
- when we had our, what's your fancy term for ballot reconciliation? Yeah, we did it. And then as to the
- accreditation of the person, that probably would have been a better question for Mr. Jeremy, who stepped
- away. He's using it in other states. It's not been used in Indiana. We would actually probably be the
- pilot county for Indiana if the board were so inclined to accept
- and I want to be very clear. The intent is to supplement, not replace any of the amazing training that
- we already have going on in Monroe County, which gives me a chance to give Miss Ashley a shout out because
- she works her buns off for you all to make sure that your training is top notch. Okay.
- And then I just want to add to that, Regina, if you'll stay back so I can talk to you a little bit about
- that. And so I can get a little bit more information so I can see about some of the poll workers there
- and wanting to see if they were new poll workers, older poll workers, because if it's older groups,
- then it's like a group of the veteran poll workers, then I definitely want to make sure that we're re-hitting
- that. But if it's one of our new ones, then I want to see if we can maybe change some of that to make
- it more accessible and easier to understand.
- Any other? Just come to the microphone if you want to speak. I just want to say that I didn't know Janae
- from Adam or Eve. But I feel like Judy Sharp has really
- been on my back since she dealt with my husband who has since passed. And so I thought that she needed
- some competition. And the reason I am here is because I am so against voter suppression that I feel
- like is going on in our country right now. And I want to see that voter suppression isn't done here.
- And that was my whole reason.
- Thank you. Thank you. Very nice to see you. And I, I don't want to speak on behalf of you. Did you sign
- the sheet? I don't want to speak on behalf of the entire board, but I do want to say I, and again, I
- am one of three. Um, I am not at all interested in any type or semblance of voter suppression in Monroe
- County. And as long as my name is on the bottom line of an election,
- there is not going to be voter suppression in Monroe County. Sorry, it's not on there again. That's
- very kind of you to say. Anyone else? Thing from board members. I am reaching out to Jeremy just for
- Miss Regina to confirm that a lecture is accredited and he is responding and he said yes, Miss Regina.
- Mr. Chair, unless you have other speakers, I will make a motion to adjourn. I'll second that.
- Those in favor, aye. Aye. Motion carries. We will reconvene on August 12th at 9 o'clock, unless we hear
- differently from Molly that we can't get through. And yeah, we have some forms to sign here, I think,
- don't we? We need to sign those.
- I have the one resolution, which I have a one-sided document for you to sign.