because it's nine o'clock. Officially it will stop if the clock dings above us. The special meeting
of October 14th. The election board is called to order. We have minutes will deal with those that are
next official regular meeting, I believe. So election central update from. I like. OK, so I wanted to
give a little bit of an update.
some people are aware, some people are not, but we do have a early voting dashboard on the Monroe County
website. It is actually in two different locations, might be three, I know for sure it's on the home
page of the Monroe County website, the voter registration and possibly on the election board as well.
I haven't been able to check if it's there.
But we are currently at three thousand three hundred and fifty nine voters as of the end of day yesterday
and yesterday was also our largest turnout day with six hundred and seventy three voters.
Right now, our registered voter total is the 91,488. We do still have some that are in pending and some
that are also still in incomplete. Those will be finalized, I believe it's today. Yeah, I'm pretty sure
it's today is the last day for us to finalize those. And then the last day for anyone to send a request
for an absentee ballot by mail is October 22nd. And travel board will begin tomorrow.
Thank you. I have a question. Yes. And of course it involves money. You know what that does. According
to my wife who works has worked afternoons. People at work the morning shift or do it 745 are they on
the clock at 745.
I'm not sure how they're clocking in right now on the time sheet because it's a written time sheet that
they do clock in on. We have said that you round up so it would be eight o'clock would be the time that
they would start. Some people are showing up at 745 like our leads who are there to try to get things
ready and get everything set up and ready for the day. So they would be clocking in at that earlier
time. The reason I ask is she works the afternoon shift and that overlap
I think it was yesterday. Okay yeah so I'm right now I am getting ready to look at increasing the number
of workers that are at early voting. For the remainder of the week starting tomorrow because of the amount of
back up that we have had. Our lines have been wrapping into that entryway and people are just jamming
as many people as they can into that little foyer area right there in the entrance. And so that's something
that I want to try to prevent from happening and want to just continue getting that line flowing quicker.
OK, thank you. That was just a. She asked me and I said, I don't know. OK, we have some resolutions
that we need to vote on.
I said we could just handle all of them at once. We're revisiting, correct, Mr. Chair, that we revisiting
the ones that we voted on last week. I think you're revisiting at least one because that one needed
to include a list that we did not have last week, and I think we have it now.
Yeah, so I think you're going to ratify the student election one for lack. I think it's called the Hoosier
Hall Pass Workers Resolution. It is. I think that is the one that gets ratified and the rest of them
can get approved.
Mr. Chair, Kylie, myself and the recruiters were at Bloomington High School North last week, and it
turned into a little competition between North and South, but we were successfully able to get a significant
number of high 16 and 17 year olds willing to serve on election day, incredible young people. And so
I will happily make the motion to
to adopt the Hoosier Hall Pass Workers Resolution today. I'll second. I think that's a good competition
to have. It was fabulous. So how many do we have now total? So the total number I'm not for sure on.
I have the whole list.
And we definitely have over 100 because from Bloomington North, we had 94 students register to work
on Election Day and from Bloomington South, we had 84. And then we also have Seven Oaks Lighthouse Christian
Academy, Edgewood High School, and then homeschooled students as well who have signed up. So you could
get to 200? Oh, easily. Well, that's good news.
I thought it was really cute when the principal got on the after the lunch period. He said he refers
to a school on the southern end of town and tells what numbers that they have. And then he says something
to the effect of. But because the Cougars really come out and turn out for their community, we're happy
to report. And then he names the number. It was just an incredible opportunity. And they had another
thing going on at the same time. So we got lots of student attention
was amazing. Okay, that works. Um, do we have any discussion about the Hoosier Hall pass resolution
that. Those in favor I I opposed. All right, so we don't need to do anything with the other ones about
the sheriff's and the workers because we passed it and now we've got. We've got from both parties. Uh,
emails that they approve the people, correct? Yes, so I received
The email from the Republican Party yesterday and then the letter from the Democratic Party is dated
yesterday as well. Both of them did submit their letters and then they are referring to the list that
the recruiters use. I have emailed all three of you as well as Molly and Jeff the list.
of all of the workers, that's including your inspectors, judges, clerks, sheriffs, and Hoosier Hall
Pass students. They're all in one document. That way it's easier for you guys to review. We got that
this morning. Yes. That was the email that was sent out this morning. And then the list will be attached
to the resolution as well. I do think you need to approve the resolution.
the resolution that was approved the last time was the inspectors and judges to admit them to be able
to have training in the last two weeks. And then, um, this one is now including
Are you moved? Do you need a second? We need a second second. Discussion. Those in favor I I posed.
Alright. Oh, then I guess we're ready to move on to the discussion of the ballot. Mr. Chair, if I can
explain enhanced voting and then I have a letter that I'd like to read into the minutes. I think we
can clear this issue up pretty quickly.
with your go ahead. Go ahead. Um, last week I received an email from one of the absentee board members
at election central expressing concern for the enhanced voting as the method of delivering an email
online ballot to our military and overseas as well as our voters with vision and print disability. Um,
and so, um,
It was a rather lengthy letter. I was threatened with, if you don't do this, I will do this. And so
I reached out to the Secretary of State's office, some other clerks, just to understand, is this a statewide
issue of which I was not aware? It turned out it was not. In fact, Monroe County is the only county
having an issue. But I was able to get some information that I believe I'll be able to clarify. And
I'm going to ask Kylie to help me with this.
Kylie, is it correct that the number of voters who use the enhanced voting amounts to 1% of all registered
voters in Monroe County? Yes. So the correct number of individuals who are eligible to use this is 601
as of today. Is it correct that of that 1%, 12 people had issues?
right around that number. It's an estimate of 12 individuals who had an issue. And that only amounts
to 2% of that 1%. Yes, ma'am. And we would have that with regular absentee by mail, election day voting.
There's nothing you touch that doesn't have like a 1% error rate, correct? Yes, ma'am. And then do I
also understand that all issues for those 12 people have been resolved?
Yeah, so our absentee staff has been working digitally as well as myself on ensuring that those are
getting corrected. I've been back and forth in communication with enhanced at the beginning when we
were really seeing some larger issues that were resolved very quickly. I would say, if anything, we
were aided
to be updated and it was because they were going back to their developmental team and getting answers
and making sure that they had a full answer for us before they returned to us. And in addition to that,
anything that did come back as having an error, our absentee staff has reached out to them directly
through an email to ensure that those issues were resolved so that the voters votes would be counted.
What I understood in reaching out to other clerks was that
yet they have a few people but nothing huge and they just walk those people through that, correct? And
so this is the issues that brought up this concern are unique to Monroe County. No other county in Indiana
is having this issue. So there's not a problem with the system. There's a problem with the user, correct?
Yes. So in terms of what Enhance
that voting has relayed to us is when they go in and do the research on the issues that we have seen
and reported to them, they go back and they can do a full rundown of the steps that that voter takes
and seeing where the error happens exactly. And they have said that the almost 100%, I believe there's
maybe one or two that it wasn't and they were able to fix those have been user errors.
Mr. Chair, if I could read into the minutes a letter from the Secretary of State's office that I provided
to both election board members. Please do. Monroe County, dear Monroe County election board members,
it has come to the attention of the Indiana Secretary of State's office that questions were raised regarding
the use of enhanced voting's enhanced ballot for print disabled and
UOCAVA voters. To date, we are unaware that other Indiana counties or other states utilizing this service
have reported similar issues. It is our understanding that all reported concerns were submitted to enhanced
voting and have been acknowledged and resolved within one business day. Please note that the system
was reviewed prior to this year's primary election and approved for use by the co-directors of the Indiana
Election Division. The system is designed for ease of use,
has undergone accessibility testing and is fully integrated with the statewide voter registration system,
also known as SVRS, for election compatibility. We understand that the vendor provided several training
opportunities detailed
We will continue to provide user manuals and continue to provide user support. Indiana counties have
other options to administer accessible and overseas ballots and comply with federal requirements. We
are interested in hearing about your concerns and will be happy to follow up with enhanced voting if
you do not believe your concerns are being heard or responded to.
I would recommend changing accessible ballot vendors or discontinuing use of the enhanced voting application
at this time, less than three weeks from the general election, and that is signed by the Secretary of
State's attorney. Thank you, thank you. I have some questions about some of this also, and I I had sent
this to Molly and. I lay unto Mr Branham.
First of all, I wanted to know what training local workers had with enhanced voting.
So enhanced voting held a online virtual training that everybody was eligible to partake in anybody
who had access to SVRS at the time which all of our staff members did would have received a invitation
to this to join that training as well as that is recorded and they can go back at any time to watch
it but in addition to that in the primary when we used it for the first time they sent
training manuals that are a step by step guide. And in my opinion, I believe this step by step guide
is more user friendly than the video training that they had held. And that's the source that I go back
to. If I have a question, I go back to that manual and just look for it. It's very well laid out and
easy to use. So how many received training?
I know I for sure received the training as well as my two full time staff members. And then I'm not
sure of anybody else who logged in during that training. OK, so that would include the two that are
overseeing the absentee ballots. You don't know if they see it and then they work below and they do
the hands on mostly, but I'm the one that does the setup of the entire system itself. And there was
an issue about the signatures that are
required, has that been fully resolved?
That is one of the things that we reached out to them about to see what was going wrong with the signatures
not appearing on our end, but voters saying that they did know that they had signed it. This is something
that we are both looking at on the county level, but also in the enhanced level. Enhanced has looked
at it and seen that there are no signatures on their side of the document, so they believe that the
signature got missed when they were clicking through to do that.
does that doesn't invalidate the ballot then that we don't have the signatures if we don't have the
signatures currently the absentee staff is emailing them a copy of that affidavit affidavit and they're
signing and sending it back to us through an email so it maintains the okay yes then the email that
was forwarded to me from my party chair indicated that a few of the i don't know if they were military
overseas voters had actually
mailed instead of emailed back their ballot that's a concern because they're not in the correct kind
of sign envelopes what again what does that do to the validity of the ballot so we've asked enhanced
about that that was an option that the secretary of state's office chose to leave as an option for them
to have that ability to print it and send it back to us it doesn't change anything we still process
it the same way so those ballots that are being
done inside of enhanced ballot have to be remade with a official ballot by a bipartisan team for election
day for it to be scanned through our system through heart. So it's not going to change the system that
we're using currently. It just comes back, goes into an envelope for us to keep it secure. It's a separate
envelope than what they're mailing it back in.
and we put it into a envelope in our office that's being used for all military and overseas and VPD
ballots, and then they will be remade on election day. You indicated that Monroe County started to use
this in the primary. Was that just for the print challenged voters or was it also for the overseas and
military? We were supposed to use it for military and overseas, but in the primary it was used for VPDs only.
I had reached out to Kylie first with these questions. These were not just hitting her. No, you're fine.
I seen them and I wanted to wait until the meeting that away that it was public so that everybody had
them and not just in an email. Appreciate that very much. Thank you. But I think that also that. If
there's a problem and I'm not saying this isn't directed toward you, but if there's a problem with any
ballot that it's our responsibility to
make sure that that voters. Intention is honored, whether it's 1% or half of 1% or not. Then also. And
I'm not sure whether or not to direct this to Jeff or not, but it's my understanding that the election
board is supposed to approve any any kind of. Process. Of this kind of software and I don't recall having
this go before us.
And clearly, I don't know if it did go before you. But I do think that this is an option. I mean, it's
not the required. So I would assume that there would be a decision point with the election board on
utilizing this or not. And again, I don't know if it went through a meeting and it got approved or not.
I do think that it's clearly a state program. And the state has some confidence in it and went through
a nice, robust process to choose it. I'm just saying that
that this election board was not made aware of this until there was a problem. And I feel that it's
our responsibility to actually approve anything like this. When this was presented to the Clerks Association,
my understanding was that it had already been approved for use. I did not realize that it was optional
and that the
have to approve it. It was as you heard me say it was approved by the co directors of the Indiana Election
Division. It was passed on to us at conferences. We are the only county that is having an issue. Other
counties love this. Um and so. You have options after my understanding is, um.
elections and then the next secretary of state will have an option as to whether to continue with enhanced
voting. Again, every type of voting has some type of error rate. Yes, I agree with you. It
is our responsibility to help that voter. But you and I both know that all three of us will be reconciling
ballot ballots even on elect. I'm sorry up to Election Day for people who we're trying to ascertain
their voter intent.
This is no different. So to to blow this up like it is something like something nefarious is going on
was simply unnecessary at a time where we are trying to get through a very better than expected turnout
election. Thank you. I also want to add that at the state conference in December,
They the way that it was printed presented for the enhanced ballot was that this is what we're using
and it wasn't necessarily brought across as an option while at that conference because I had stopped
and talked to both Angie and Matthew about
the enhanced because we had used we hadn't used it yet because it was the primary was coming up. That
would have been the first time that we used it. And I asked them some questions at that time. And the
way that it was presented to me was definitely more so of this is what we're using and less of a you
have an option to use this. So that's why I want to have thought that it would have came across to the
election board as a vote. But then again, I. I'm just the election supervisor.
And I when I actually read the contract between the Secretary of State's office and enhanced voting
LLC, it said that it would be made available. It did not. The contract did not say that this is something
that would be used statewide. In presentation is everything the presentation and you were there was
indicative that it did not. It appeared that it was a done deal to me and and I it sounds like more
than one person thought that.
Yeah, I'll just add that I've not received a copy of the contract. That generally is something that
would go to the clerk and. Yeah, I mean, I've not seen contract and I've not been able to get access
to a contract either, so and I don't have a contract because obviously a contract would have had to
have some review and so I think the contract that the state had, which I found online.
I just want to clarify there is no local contract here this is a contract with the with the state of
Indiana with the vendor and the state of Indiana has made that available for us to use we would not
review that contract because it's not ours we're not paying anybody for it's a free service to us for
this so we wouldn't we wouldn't review that contract because that has been reviewed by the attorney
general's office and and done at the state level
I totally agree. I just didn't saying that there's nothing in the contract that's that specifies that
this is to be used throughout the state. That's all. So we get this from the state. Are we paying them
for this? My understanding is that it is provided to all the counties free of charge is being paid for
by the state. We chose to use something else from somebody else. Would we have to pay for that? Probably
assuming there's a cost associated with it.
Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, just in terms of trying to close this loop again, all reported concerns
worse that were submitted to enhance voting have been acknowledged and have been resolved within one
business day. I haven't been into early voting a lot, but sitting in there, there are people that struggle
with. Filling in a box. I mean, it just. Nothing is going to be
that nobody has an issue with it. Correct. And if those issues are resolved, it's fine with me.
I believe that a competitor of enhanced voting would be democracy live. That is also available free
for use of counties. I spoke with the Marion County clerk the other night, and I believe that they use
democracy live. So there is no payment. It is just designed to make it easier. And how many voters do
we have at this time, Kylie? Overall, yes, like registered voters. Yes, 91,000 91,000 of 91,012 people.
that has been resolved. We can hold the hands of 12 people and get them through this like we do any
other voter that we have an issue and we're trying to reconcile. So that they can successfully vote.
Thank you, Mr Chair. Thank you, Claire Brown. I have a question. When we used Omni ballot in 2024, do
you know if that was
the same situation of where it wasn't approved but used, or was it one that was brought to the election
board for approval beforehand? I am not aware of Omni Ballot being brought to the election board. I
was just curious because I was wondering how that transition would have looked if it was one of the
ones that we did have approved by the election board prior. Yeah, just curious, sorry.
but 12 people out of 91,000, correct? Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Do we have any public comment
from anyone? Oh, I'm sorry. Just a couple of things I'd like to ask about. Is there already a local
judge who we know will be working on Election Day? Yes, there is, and I have him in my phone. Spoke
to him yesterday. Thank you. And is that possible for us to know who that is? Judge Dikof.
Also, I was looking. Last evening at the form that gets filled out of somebody casts a provisional ballot
and at least what was available at the state website and maybe this is in not current on the back, but
it says that the voter has until 3 PM. 10 days after election day. Not noon on
10 days after election day to cure their provisional ballot. The election board has to have all of them
cured by 3 p.m. The voter has until noon 10 days after, which is why we begin the provisional ballot
hearing at 1201. Right, right, right. The election board has election board has to have all provisional
ballots cured by 3 p.m. 10 days after the election.
I do appreciate that. I just want to make sure that there was no confusion about that. Yeah, thank you.
Are we going to start fixing that? Go ahead. Okay. So are we also going to set up our first meeting
for January, sir? I would assume that the first Thursday is January 7th and that would be our January meeting.
So is there not plans to have other meetings? Well, we do have our professionals and we have some required
so we can have specials. But I have little interest in meeting two days after the election, right? So
we normally don't meet two days after the election, but we will meet in December because we have the
post election audit in December. And so the election board will have to come together after that to.
Formally, does that happen? Well, OK.
I mean, just so we don't forget. I'm with you. That first Thursday of December is an issue for me. OK,
yeah, that's an issue from the weekend. So I.
I'm not 100% sure, but I'm almost positive that the 2nd of December is when our post election audit
is. I'll have to go back and verify that. I know I sent that awhile back in an email, so it might be
one that's just been lost. I'll make sure that I send that again to update everybody. So we're looking
at January 7th for the next. That's the first Thursday in January, yes.
And then we're still wanting to do the 1.30 PM on first Thursday of every month. As we have a better
I mean there are better times for me, but it's not that big of a deal. I was going to say in my experience
from other groups like this that generally if we're because that we know that there's going to be a
change in the membership. If we set up the first meeting of the month, then we can set up the the meetings
for the rest of the year at that first meeting.
I mean, that's typically how I will handle most of the boards and commissions that I oversee is that
we keep the schedule for the first meeting in January. We go ahead and make sure reserve the room for
the rest of the year because 90% of them want to continue that schedule. But then we always have that
conversation at the first meeting. Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I was making sure because whenever
I reach out to TSD to schedule the that first meeting of the year, they generally ask me when we expect
the rest of the meetings to be.
That's fine until we have a better idea. I'd like to move that we. That January the 7th at 1.30 here
in the net you Hill room. That's fine. Just. Well, second. Hi hi hi.
of the public notice for election day as well as the night before. They were already in the annual notice
for the whole year, but I'm going to send out a reminder one for those two days. And then I'll send
out a reminder for the provisional ballot hearing as well. Yeah, that's the 13th at noon. Yes. Okay.
All right.
anything else we need to do. Kylie do we have any building update? I actually just got an email this
morning that we will be getting contacted soon for having the additional cameras installed in to the
space that have been requested. This is in the hallway of where the ballot room server room and ABS
office are. I've requested that that one be added from the
report that we got back from CISA. And then our speaker and microphone should be getting installed soon.
I know it was supposed to happen late last week, early this week. So I'll reach out to Richard to ensure
that that gets taken care of. And then we did have an incident yesterday that has been issued to the
maintenance department as well as a few others, and they are already taking care of that. Thank you.
I would just say as a public comment that I early voted yesterday and it was very efficient. The people
were very friendly and it was a good experience. Thank you so much. That's just Tuesday for us. Yeah.
Yeah, so yesterday, like I said, was a record high for us for this election so far and I will be
reaching out to the leads to see about increasing staffing for the remainder of this week because we
have been every day this week so far there has been a line multiple times during the day. And a bunch
of people show up anywhere there's going to be a line. Yes. Unless you woefully overstaff, it's just
it's going to happen. There was not a line at 830. Good. It was great. Good. First thing in the morning
is perfect. Yep. All right, then move to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.
Second. Those in favor aye. Aye.