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.