- Okay let's go ahead and call to order the April 7th meeting of the Monroe County
- Election Board. For some of you standing in back there are some seats in front if
- you'd like them. There's a bench if you don't want to get too close or there are
- seats right in front but encourage you to grab a seat. Today is the first
- hearing of two hearings that we'll be having regarding the proposal for vote
- centers here in Monroe County. What we're going to do tonight is have the
- representatives of the vote center study committee do an opening presentation
- and then we may have some questions for them and then we're going to open it up
- to public comment and we're gonna ask speakers to limit their comments three
- minutes so we can make sure everybody is now joining and then that includes folks
- online. We'll ask that you come to the podium and sign in prior to giving your
- comments. You don't need to do it in advance just when you walk up and that
- way we'll be able to have a nice record of everybody participated in tonight's
- hearing and for the folks online we'll just ask that you raise your hand and
- we'll make a record of who's speaking after you announce your name. So with
- that there will be a second hearing as I said but let's just go ahead and get
- things going and we'll ask Alana to come up and do the presentation for the
- committee and thank you all for coming. Yeah thank you so much for coming. My
- name is Alana Stonebreaker. I'm chair of the Monroe County Vote Center Committee
- which is a committee of the election board. Can you guys hear me okay if I
- talk at this level? All right I have some slides. Oh can they get a little bit
- bigger? Oh yes, awesome. So I'm gonna go through some information on on my slide
- deck but just the the gist of it is the the report which is 56 pages is available
- on the Monroe County Vote Center site and and this will go through some of the
- main findings and what what kind of happens next. So I'm gonna kind of speak
- for about 15-20 minutes to give it to kind of situate our area. So what is a
- vote center? So I'm right now on election day Monroe County has what are called
- precincts or super precincts which means that we combine multiple precincts into
- one location and they all vote and you only have one location you can vote at.
- In a vote center county you can vote at any of the voting locations it's kind of
- like a vote anywhere area. About 65 of the 92 counties have already adopted
- this it's about 20 years old and it doesn't require a change to for example
- electronic voting or anything like that we can use our paper ballots continually
- as part of this. So if you have experienced early voting in Monroe
- County it's a very similar process to what you've experienced before. Can I go
- to the next slide?
- How does a vote center work? So the way that this works is is a voter goes
- to an election goes to a location and then when they get there right now on
- election day you may have experienced that people check you on and what's
- called an electronic poll book. An electronic poll book is a device that is
- not connected to the internet that tells us that a person has voted and informs
- the the the machines that that has happened and an additional step that it
- will now do is it will know which what precincts that person lives in and it
- will and we will print out the ballot. So right now we had a certain amount of
- ballots pre-printed but now they'll be printing on demand. So once again if you
- have experience voting early voting you remember that you one of the steps was
- as you go to the printers and you receive your ballot that will be kind of
- how this would look differently for election day. Next slide. So how do we
- steps to forming of so these are steps outlined by the state. So first you form
- a study committee which we did in the fall of 2023. The study committee drafts
- a vote center plan and then there's a public hearing to open the pub the the
- draft to public comment. That's what we're doing right now. Then there's there's
- are concurrently there is a resolution by the county commissioners and a
- resolution by the county council. So we already have that resolution from the
- county commissioners and we're waiting on that resolution from the county
- council and then concurrently also then there's an additional public hearing for
- us it will be on May 19th at 530 which is on your handout to consider written
- feedback and vote by the election board so they can approve approve with
- amendments or not approved the vote center plan and then we file the plan
- with the Indiana election division and then Kylie who I'm looking at right now
- our election supervisor will then work through all the processes of ordering
- the additional equipment that we need so we need more printers in this
- environment and then making sure that we update all of our documentation so that's
- the process so in 2023 the Monroe County Election Board created the vote center
- committee it was a committee with bipartisan so Democrat Republican but
- then additionally represented from the League of Women Voters independent
- voters from neither who identified as independent additionally we had a
- student also on the board as well and so it was originally 11 and then over time
- it kind of has become 7 so and we've been working meeting every other week for
- pretty much the whole duration trying to make sure that we were as thorough as
- possible and understanding this process next slide so our methodology was we
- conducted listening sessions in Ellisville Unionville the IU campus and
- also with the Monroe County NAACP to kind of ask the question as my colleague
- says what about it what do you think of vote centers just to get people's
- feedback as we were drafting our plan we also conducted listening sessions with
- IU students particularly invited them to our meeting we also Kylie our election
- supervisor visited a different county that uses the same equipment that we use
- we had lawyers present on it and we also tried out the election equipment and did
- a tour of the election equipment next slide so we we chose four different
- options one was convert all 29 polling locations that we used in this last
- election into vote centers option 2 is convert 22 of the 29 locations to become
- vote centers this number came from looking at other counties and how many
- vote centers they had after they switched so you don't you know you're a
- little bit more demand-based and since people can vote not only where they live
- but where they work you can kind of change the locations to better fit that
- and so 22 is one of the numbers that we thought about for that or we could
- select 11 locations to become vote centers that would be roughly one per
- township or not to adopt vote centers next slide we also and I can't even read
- my slides from over here so I'm gonna look at we also considered proximity of
- key of vote centers to things like population centers committees with
- communities with low vehicle ownership students University faculty historically
- undermined genized groups public transit locations as well as we had a
- presentation by the Chicago lawyers committee on civil rights about voter
- access consideration and racial equity implications next slide oh oh yeah that
- the sorry that's just the same one again keep going so the recommendations we had
- is that we found that vote centers have potential benefits for the Monroe County
- voters and should be adopted and by a 7-0 vote the committee recommends
- converting all 29 super precincts into 20 into vote centers moving forward so
- doing a full-scale switch in terms of infrastructure and training we've had a
- good experiences with hard inner civic and that the representatives instructed
- the committee on how to supplement current equipment to support on-demand
- printing one of the issues that is a continued issue is the computers are not
- connected to the internet but low Wi-Fi is an issue in some areas we already own
- a hundred and a hundred and thirty secure and reliable electronic poll backs
- and then we'll have to work on poll worker training to prepare and we'll use
- our existing early voting training next slide additionally it was it was within
- the scope of the committee to make recommendations about potential early
- voting locations and from our feedback that we received we suggested two
- additional early voting sites ten days before the election I'm sorry three
- additional early voting sites ten days before the election so these wouldn't
- run as long as the full early voting but we approached specifically Ellisville
- Town Hall the IU Center on representative government which is across
- from the IMU and the Monroe County Public Library Southwest branch as
- potential locations for additional early voting so once again this is not
- required by the plan but this is something that we also suggest next
- slide okay so the report is available on the Monroe County Election Board's
- website so if you go to the election boards website you can look at it there
- next slide and I hope that's the right cue anyway including the report is it's
- long because it has the required compliance checklist so showing that we
- understand all the ramifications of the choices we made and that we're
- knowledgeable about the topic as a county it also has the required vote
- center floor plans of all 29 locations we also are required to include the
- number of vote centers and the location of each of all the vote centers which
- are currently all the current locations in terms of it we also got additional
- feedback on vote centers as well as recommendations of the committee all
- right next slide just for context and I think that's important I asked Kylie to
- get us polling sites over time in Monroe County just to give you an idea of how
- much they vary so as we've gone into as little as nine in 2019 to as much as 35
- in recent areas just to give people an idea that there are fluctuations in
- terms of is it a city election and not a county election is are there are there
- uncontested races in terms of it those sorts of things affect the financing of
- this as well is how many locations are needed in a particular year so once
- again this is the steps so today we're doing the public hearing to open the
- draft for public comment and then people have until Monday May 19th to when we to
- either express to the election board through written feedback I'm going to
- show you guys a link to a form where you can do that as well as you can write the
- election board etc next slide all right so everyone should have the QR code on
- their little pamphlet that they got but that has a link to a Google form which
- is how we're gathering a bit of the public comment so some of the questions
- it asks are simple questions such as do you support vote centers yes or no what
- changes do you have for the current plan and then also a question about if you
- had a chance to vote in any location would you vote closer to work closer to
- home closer etc so for example I myself work at IU and if given the chance I
- would probably usually in the areas between 8 and 6 p.m. I'm usually at work
- so not that whole time in terms of it but it would be easier for me to vote
- while at work then in my then in on the north side of Bloomington where I live
- normally so you can also write election central that's on your card as well so
- last slide okay so the election the second election hearing and election
- board vote is Monday May 19th 530 p.m. in the not to you Hill courtroom and before
- I give up the mic I just want to say what a delight it is to have this many
- people interested in voting in terms of it we have been working on this for a
- long time and it has and especially for the the committee it's been kind of a
- long slog and so it's really I think a delight have this many people interested
- in invested so thank you all for coming and and hearing about the proposed vote
- center plan okay thank you any questions before we go on we'll just go on and
- we're here to hear for the public so we're not going to pontificate and I'm
- sure we could fill up two hours worth of questions just from the board but we're
- not going to do that tonight so as we said if you want to provide public
- comment we ask that you if you're online raise your hand virtually or come to the
- podium sign in and you will have three minutes I also welcome any questions -
- okay we have someone online why don't we do that why we wait for a person to come
- up can we I think that might be the mayor Katie it is the mayor I'm here are
- you ready for me to begin yes please okay this is mayor Carrie Thompson and I
- want to first express my gratitude to the committee that put the study together
- one of our greatest challenges in today's world is getting participation
- especially from voices and people who frequently get left out of decision
- making and as I have gone door-to-door knocking to get input from people within
- the city about what we're doing in city government not to gain their vote just
- to get their input many many people are telling me they don't vote because they
- it's it's inconvenient and they think their voices aren't heard and the work
- of this committee moving towards vote centers really alleviates a lot of
- friction for voting people can go during the work day during the school day to
- the place that's most convenient for them and it eliminates a lot of the
- confusion as as has already been stated today so this is clearly not a party
- issue I think that getting a getting vote centers especially out in the county
- will get many of the rural voices to the table to to cast their ballots and so I
- really encourage the election board to consider this carefully and and vote in
- favor of these vote centers thanks so much for all your work okay thank you we
- have someone at the podium
- and I've been thinking about voting for a long long time I can we moved here from
- Michigan in 1964 and at that time Michigan like most of the states around
- us had longer voting hours we have one of the shortest voting hour days in the
- country and and that doesn't help so people have to have to be there by in
- the more early in the morning and can't can't be there later than six o'clock
- that makes a very short voting day in any distance that one has to travel
- during that day makes it longer time it makes it more difficult for many people
- so that doesn't make any sense to me the first people that I who were talking
- about this was the wife of the former governor governor Frank O'Bannon and
- Mrs. O'Bannon was a strong supporter of voting centers and it seems that that
- was a good idea 30 40 50 years ago it's a good idea now and right now I think
- we're living at a time when voting is extremely important every vote has to
- count because we have a difficult human experience that we're going through here
- so my my support for this is full full-throated and full-hearted and hope
- that we can get around to the point where we're reasonable about what we're doing
- and recognize the need for for making it easy for people to vote because voting
- is the thing that we're going to have to get through the next few years with and
- we're going to have to make choices for not only our lives but the lives of our
- children and our grandchildren that for me it's a matter of civil common sense
- there's so many things are and I urge you to support this thank you
- my name is Tracy Yovanovich and we moved here from Seattle about six years ago
- which I'll just say the mail-in votes were fantastic but that's another story I
- appreciate everything that you guys have done at the Center Voting Center I've
- voted there every time it's smooth it's easy it's fantastic but most importantly
- I have a father who's 85 and our youngest son who's 19 I can make sure
- both of them get to the voting center and I don't have to worry about the
- schedules because it's nightmare trying to match it at the polling center so I
- think it's very important that we have them and we make it available to as many
- people as possible thank you
- my name is Michelle Higgs thank you so much for the work that you're doing last
- year I ran for House district 60 and my district included Monroe Morgan and
- Johnson counties and both Morgan and Johnson have vote centers and the
- experience that I saw particularly in Morgan County was that when the lines
- got too heavy in one area they would actually call and find out oh there's
- room there's you know no lines over in this vote center and people within go
- and so it just it flowed really well as a matter of fact we started to kind of
- make jokes that there needs to be an app like the great clips where it's like
- only five minute waiting at this vote center but then the other thing is and
- I'm glad that it was mentioned about early voting because that is Monroe
- County's experience of a vote center and so in my family I picked up my parents
- my brother arrived my husband was with me and we all voted as a family and it
- actually became the celebration together of celebrating democracy and also again
- me voting as a candidate that was a unique thing but I just want to name that
- to me I don't see a problem with vote centers I personally live in Benton one
- which is just north of Unionville and so being in a rural area and finding myself
- downtown it would be wonderful to have those options so thank you
- hi I'm Isabelle Piedmont Smith I sit on the Bloomington City Council born and
- raised here in Bloomington and I have worked at the polls a few times and I've
- also heard from other acquaintances who have worked at the polls and there are
- always people who come to polling sites because it's close to where they work or
- especially IU students close to campus and then they're turned away because
- they're at the wrong polling site and it gets very frustrating for them they've
- waited in a long line only to find out that they are not in the right location
- and then sometimes they don't have time to go to the right location so
- especially for a college town I think it's very important to have voting
- centers to make it easier for students to vote but across the board I think it
- makes it easier for anybody to vote and therefore I urge you to support voting
- centers my name is Vaughn Welch thank you for a couple moments of your time I'm
- going to largely echo my friend Isabelle's comments I've had the honor of
- volunteering at the vote centers to be honest the largest problem was people
- forgetting their driver's license and a little scanner things and having getting
- back to them following that it was people showing up at the wrong center
- sometimes just confusing it with one across the street literally in our case
- and then giving them the best directions and hoping that they had the time and
- the schedule and the forthrightness to find the right place so they can vote so
- I want to thank the vote center committee for their work and urge us all
- to give this serious consideration thank you
- hi my name is Daniel Jenkins speaking today in support of vote centers I was a
- I was in charge of voter registration for an organization on campus for two years
- and I just want to say that the current system is really confusing for a lot of
- students especially want to point out that not every dorm on campus gets to
- vote at the IMU so students who don't have a car they don't ever leave campus
- on most days are not able to vote on campus and it really drives down turnout
- for students I also grew up in Tippecanoe County where we did have vote centers
- over the years I voted with my mom multiple times at multiple different
- locations and I just think it's a lot better and a lot simpler thank you
- my name is Matt Caldy like Michelle I had the unique experience of getting to
- vote for myself in the primary election this go-around I voted early so this
- didn't really affect me but as an anxious candidate on primary election
- day I kind of bounced around between polling places trying to engage with
- voters and I spent a lot of late afternoon until when polls closed at the
- Sherwood Oaks location and I'm pretty confident that more people went in and
- came out and said I'm in the wrong place then came out with a sticker I know one
- individual not from that location but who I learned the next day had went to
- a wrong location and just gave up and went home so that means we lost at least
- at least one voter who I know personally so I think that voting centers would be
- a great solution to that just make life a little bit easier on everyone who may
- not be prepared or might not have a plan or might not have voted early so I'm
- strongly in favor of vote centers thank you for your time hang on one second we
- have somebody online why don't we go to the next person that has her hand up
- online here and identify yourself once you become unmuted okay yes hello my
- name is Madeleine Meldrum I am a graduate student at IU I've lived here
- for about two years now and I also want to speak in favor of having voting
- centers similar to some of the other people who have spoken it would be much
- more convenient for me to be able to vote in a place near my near my work
- because that is where I spend most of the day and also I think it's important
- to keep in mind people who have limited mobility and who you know may have a hard
- time getting to their designated voting center or even figuring out where it is
- they may not have the resources to look that up and so I think that for the sake
- of being inclusive all members of our community as well as just making it more
- convenient for some of us I'm strongly in favor of voting centers hi my name is
- Tanner Branham I am currently chair of the young Democrats of Monroe County
- and I've been a volunteer here locally for local candidates for several years
- while volunteering I always volunteer at polling locations and without fail every
- time I volunteer to polling locations there are multiple people who are
- turned away because they've showed up at the wrong wrong location many of these
- people are very crunched for time you know they might be trying to vote after
- work or on a lunch break or and you know having those people being told that
- they're at the wrong location and they have to drive across the county to get
- to the correct polling location it yeah it can just hurt a lot of people's you
- know their voting rights so yeah I just strongly urge you to support those
- centers thank you very much
- I just like to thank everybody here thanks for the committee that did the
- research my name is Nancy Goswami and I have worked the early voting several
- cycles and I've also worked election day several cycles in various capacities and
- various responsibilities and it's very disheartening when we have someone
- coming 10 minutes before the polls close and then have to tell them that they're
- at the wrong polling sites and there have been times when I've had voters come
- in that have disability I mean ability challenges and have to tell them that
- they're at the wrong polling site also most important is if this is approved
- and we do go to voting centers I still think that it's imperative that we make
- sure that the voters know where the voting centers are send out cards you
- know maybe even send out emails phone calls because they still need to know
- where to go to vote and I've had you know make sure that they know where the
- vote about the centers are thank you good evening Eric spoon more greater
- Bloomington Chamber of Commerce just wanted to come here tonight first thank
- each of you for your service to Monroe County I know it's a big sacrifice but
- also want to register the Chamber of Commerce is full throw to support for
- vote centers you know we've seen this as a proven model in other counties across
- the state of Indiana so we don't see this as a blue versus red issue but
- something that just works we know that we have challenges with voter turnout we
- would like to see that and I think the chamber has for a very long time
- advocated for stronger voter participation in primary elections as
- well as general elections and we see this as a way of making that happen too
- as a former County Council member I know very well the costs of elections and how
- expensive that can be for taxpayers and so you know I really do see this and I
- think on behalf of our 865 member organizations it's important that we
- look at ways to be efficient and save on you know certain cost of taxpayers for
- services so again very supportive of this we're a membership organization of
- over 865 members businesses in the community employers and would urge your
- support for it thank you
- my name is Ashley Kierberg and thank you for your guys's consideration in this
- one thing I wanted to speak on as I worked on a campaign and to see the vote
- centers flowing very nicely it was very nice to see that what I noticed where I
- live is there is a lot of people in the rural areas who do not get off work at
- 5 530 and when they are rushing to Unionville school they are getting there
- at 550 555 and by the time they get out of their car they're already having to
- be turned away you see them you see the rush it's 6 o'clock they got there too
- late and that rush that could have been avoided if they were to a whole you know
- near their workplace there's people who whether they work at MCC or they work
- for the IU many of them from the rural areas are working in town and so it
- would be amazing to see that flow nicely me and my neighbor actually don't vote
- in the same area so she votes one way I won't vote the other and I think that
- would be really nice to flow that way that I've seen work thanks thank you
- hello my name is Anishka Pandey I'm this year's IU Democrats president so I
- wanted to speak a little bit about the student perspective as has been
- mentioned so far first off I want to thank the vote center committee for all
- of their work I think this is a really important topic and I'm glad we have the
- chance to talk about it publicly so not sure how many people are aware of this
- but in November on Election Day we had a particular mess on IU's campus at the IMU
- it was mentioned earlier but not all of campus even those in student housing are
- voting at the IMU and that information is pretty hard to dispel universally with
- everything else that's going on in students lives and so it was
- misinformation that led to further or whether it volunteer or not it was
- misinformation that led to a lot of student vote students not being able to
- vote in between their busy schedules and during classes student voting as we all
- know is already spectacularly low we don't need to make it any more
- difficult and in fact we can make it a lot easier by implementing vote centers
- I've also done a lot of voter registration work and one of the things
- that you hear most often is that people don't know how they're gonna get to the
- polls and often write off voting because of that if we implement vote centers
- they can vote right on campus the IMU is something that is a place that's all
- obviously very busy and people are very familiar with it that makes it a lot
- easier from the student perspective we're eliminating a barrier and it can
- be done really easily as it's been done in 65 other counties so I'm in strong
- support of those centers thank you thank you we're gonna go to the person who has
- their hand up online we can unmute them and just state your name hello everyone
- my name is Jada um can you hear me okay yes thank you okay my name is Jada and
- I'm a senior at IU like witness after witnessing the frustration of students
- unable to vote in one of the most important presidential elections last
- year I understand firsthand the importance of securing vote centers as
- previously mentioned by other speakers not all students are allowed to vote at
- the more central location of the Indiana Memorial Union and often do not have
- cars or timely transportation to transport them to and from their voting
- location in order to make it back in time for class extracurriculars meetings
- etc I've been following the hard work and progress of the vote center
- committee over the past year and like a majority of the speakers tonight I'm in
- favor of implementing both centers thank you thank you
- good evening election board my name is Trent Deckard I am a member of the
- Monroe County Council and at-large member and I'm pleased to represent all parts
- of the county and all constituents I actually want to speak not as a county
- council member but I want to speak as a citizen who actually used to work at the
- state in election administration the clerk and I did some time together I
- spent some time as co-director of the state election division it's a
- bipartisan agency that models really how elections should work much like an
- election board does and our poll workers do I want to make just a couple quick
- comments based on some of my experience and I'm gonna watch my time because
- folks that follow council know I can be long-winded when I get fired up but
- anytime I hear that folks are turned away from the polls or they're
- struggling at the polls I get a lot of heartbreak in a country this good in a
- country with this many plaques on our lawn for folks that have gone and and
- served overseas against fascism and dictators and and many of them did not
- come home and we could list their names but we don't have time to honor them in
- that way anytime I hear that folks are turned away from the polls on something
- that we could reasonably fix I think we need to fix it and I followed a vote
- centers for a number of years when I was co-director it was new back then under
- Indiana law and one of the things that that law allows you to do is an election
- board is a lot you can really zero the polling sites down to almost nothing or
- you can maximize them to reach voters where they're at my urge to you as you
- think about this is to think where people currently vote and think about
- expanding the convenience of where they currently vote so that a first person
- that enjoys voting at the fire station in Ellsville can vote at the fire
- station in Ellsville but they also can get off work wherever they're working
- and they can find that location some counties start talking about reducing
- locations and I would encourage you to think about the robust number of
- locations so that we're adding to the ability of people to engage where they
- live whether it be Unionville or whether it be downtown Bloomington now in my
- council hat we will be tasked with figuring out those dollars and I know
- I'm probably not pleasing anyone in that kind of end particularly with
- constraints from the state before counties to do it right they have to
- think hard about how people get to those polls and again when we get stories of
- people turned away or people cannot vote I think it gets pretty difficult to
- swallow when we have all these things that we do so I look forward to seeing
- the plan as it continues to emerge and hope that if a vote center plan passes
- it's robust enough to serve the county in the way that it should so people
- reassure thank you
- , thank you.
- , go ahead sorry.
- My name is Carrie Nesbit I've worked early voting since 2020 and I question I
- love the idea of the vote centers fantastic all for it I do question
- whether we need three early voting centers open ten days before every
- election because there are some elections where I'm being paid to read a
- book because maybe it's a primary maybe it's you know there's not a lot on the
- ballot so I just maybe look at whether or not we have that extra ten days at
- three locations for every election because maybe we don't need it. Hi my
- name is Cedar Cohen and I have worked several different elections always
- downtown at election operations and by far the biggest challenge that we have
- is people coming in not realizing that on Election Day not everybody can vote
- there again and then you get a mishmash of people who are either mad and turn
- around walk out and say I'm never going to vote again people who have time to go
- to their location so they do and the people who don't have time so I am
- completely in favor of this I feel as everyone else does every vote counts and
- we're consistently losing a lot by people not understanding that election
- operations isn't for everyone on Election Day if for some reason this
- doesn't pass which I hope is not the case then I do hope also that we
- communicate better to the community that election operations it's only for
- specific precincts on Election Day I don't know that we've done the greatest
- job of that and that would be something I would recommend thank you thank you
- let's go to one of the speakers online
- hi my name is Hopi Stasberg and I would also like to add another voice in
- support of vote centers I moved here to Bloomington about 11 years ago almost and
- I moved here from Wayne County Indiana which was actually an early adopter of
- vote centers and it worked and when I left there they were kind of on the
- early end of figuring it out and it was not probably as smooth as it could have
- been but there's a fair amount of elections under the belts of many of
- these counties that have implemented vote centers and we can learn a lot from
- them and I think that it can be implemented and really smooth and
- positive ways to allow more people to vote as multiple other commenters have
- already mentioned I also experienced on election day a couple of years ago
- people rushing in at maybe 545 going I hope I'm in the right place and coming
- out a couple of couple minutes later going yeah I'm not in the right place
- and I don't have time to get there now and that's just always really
- disheartening because you know you want everybody to be able to vote who wants
- to vote so I hope that you implement vote senators that I hope that in doing so
- you know we reach out to all those other counties that also do it here in Indiana
- to make the transition as smooth as possible for voters of Monroe County
- thank you thank you we have another hand on up online when we go to is now
- exiting hi my name is Andrew Hodges I'm a junior at IU and I did some of the get
- out the vote stuff on I use campus and I just wanted to speak in favor of vote
- centers I agree with all the reasons given by the other student speakers
- about how it would make voting more accessible for students see I just want
- to say thank you for the work that the committee has done thanks thank you we
- have other public comment online or in the room
- people shut up and you don't want to talk oh we have another person online
- once you're unmuted will you just state your name before you began
- can we unmute the person who has her hand up online
- you're unmuted miss all of that okay well why we contemplate that oh here we go I
- think I got it figured out thank you okay that's that's my dog speaking in
- favor of those centers now my name is Erica Oliphant I have lived here in
- Monroe County for 26 years I have been serving as your prosecuting attorney for
- six years and I would just echo the overwhelming support for vote centers I
- have a tendency to vote downtown on early voting because it is more
- convenient for me to be closer to my resident or sorry to my workplace and to
- my residents and I have to squeeze it in and my busy day as everybody else does
- so I think it's a great idea to have these vote centers where people can go
- to the most convenient location and get hopefully in and out easily so thank you
- so much everyone for your hard work on this and thank you for taking the time
- to listen to all of us I appreciate it thank you anyone else online that wants
- to make a public comment all right seeing now we'll bring it back to the
- room we have a couple more it looks like great
- my name is Perry Robinson and I've lived here all my life and my question is have
- we did a mileage there's people living Gossport Indiana that vote here do you
- know the mileage it takes from them to get where they live and where they vote
- which is on believe it's Dunsville Road it's a lot of mileage my question is
- where are we going to put the vote centers if we get vote centers where
- will be the closest one for those people or will it move into town because those
- people are I don't know last person I talked to was 89 years old and they have
- a hard way of getting around but they still vote and they know where to vote
- so I guess my question would be and I'm I'm gonna be honest am I for no am I
- against it no I'm for everybody wanting to vote and we have elders that live in
- rural areas and gospel it is it's it's in our voting and it's a long ways away
- and I emailed you guys I don't know it's been a while that question never heard
- back mileage is a big thing right I mean I believe Steinsville is yeah the
- Lions Club is where this person votes and I know what they drive now and it's a
- pretty good distance to get there let alone the distance to get wherever the
- vote center will be and if it's going to be there so it'd be a good question a
- just a nice answer to find out exactly where these vote centers are going to be
- placed and if they're ever going to move those vote centers or will those vote
- centers stay there because if you go to other counties those vote centers do move
- I don't live in the city of Bloomington I live in a rural area and I just think
- there's real people would like to know those questions too so I appreciate it if
- you can get me an answer back I'd love to know thank you yeah I just want to
- answer that in the current plan it would be the Steinsville Lions Club again it
- would be the location so if you put themselves in the report and it's a
- great question that's one of the reasons why we we we did more rural areas such
- as Unionville to get feedback on that and yes so so Steinsville would be the
- most look locust area and I will say as a person on that committee I'm a very
- data driven person and some of those areas such as Burgund don't have very
- big turnout but I do see the reason to have one in every single one of the
- townships even if data is not avail does not really from a financial perspective
- justify those particular locations and I think that's something that the
- committee is kind of returned to over and over again it is a good point once
- the vote center plan is created it can then be adjusted yearly by unanimous
- vote of the election board so a really great example of a change that will
- probably be coming to this in 2027 which I was talking to one of my co-committee
- members is so we we have 29 currently planned for the midterms but in 27 it
- will be a city election and so obviously it would be confusing for voters to
- have vote centers in the county since they wouldn't be able to vote in those
- elections so we may if we only did vote center locations that were in the city
- that would be of Ellitsville or then we would we would have 26 that year so that
- would lead to a change in terms of it but I think that's a great point I do
- think that we have a much bigger county than just Bloomington and there's a lot
- of room in terms of it and and I do appreciate your comment
- hello I'm Liz vital with a and I'm current County Council at large and just
- got caucused in January of this year I also come with a different hat on for
- about ten years I was the voter service chair for the League of Women Voters of
- Bloomington Monroe County have some experience there with voting and
- working with elections but I think the question I have at this point and I
- don't know if it's in the report somewhere else or if someone can answer
- it at this point and that is that there are other counties who have had vote
- centers occur and I would like to know if they experienced an increase in voter
- turnout when they occur when those vote centers took place did they did those
- counties experience a turnout increase I think that would be good information to
- have and I don't know if you have that but I think that merits really if it is
- and then I think that that's a really winning argument you know if you have
- success at what you're doing and it achieves the goal you're after I think
- that that says something so I'd be interested to know that thank you we do
- have that information go ahead so I I'm gonna be I was just looking up this and
- in prep for this meeting and so just to say once again I'm a librarian I'm a
- data person in terms of it so you have to really convince me for a noticeable
- change in terms of it and I did I did I do want to say that there has been an
- analysis by Tippecanoe County of comparison of themselves pre-vote centers
- and post-vote centers and they did see an increase in turnout and it and it and
- that increase in turnout also happened with rural voters as well as I forget
- their particular thing but more like differently abled voters now I'm
- critical of that because the two elections that they compared are 2004 and 2008
- which makes me think that there were also other things going on between those
- two different years that led to some historic turnout in terms of this so I
- just I just don't so so to answer your question yes a study has been conducted
- and and it did show an increase in turnout and a rather substantive increase
- in turnout but I think there are other factors that were affecting those two
- historic elections but I guess I will say also speaking as the election and
- then the the the Monroe County Vote Center committee is I I definitely am
- aware that that too much of an increase in turnout I think it I think I want
- there to be lots of increase in turnout but I also I also think there are larger
- issues that affect the ways that people vote such as in here in Indiana are our
- voting times have a strong effect in the lack lack of note no excuse the voting
- so I think those really affected and so I think it's harder to get a really big
- difference in terms of that that being said one more thing I do think that
- those who have have have seen an increase in turnout on Election Day so so though
- obviously here in Monroe County we have a real shift in our voting towards early
- voting so I don't know if we would see the same shift to people to Election Day
- that's that's a very long-winded answer to say yes but I have thoughts in terms
- of it and I could tell that Nicole was trying to jump in in terms of it did you
- have some thoughts as the clerk my thoughts were about the previous comment
- and I was wondering how many Gossport addresses fall on the Monroe County line
- if Gossport largely lies in Owen County oh it's gospel do you see what I'm
- saying yeah so there may be a few addresses just as there are a few
- Bloomington addresses that are actually in Brown County how many of the of the
- Gossport addresses actually fall on the Monroe County side of the line and for
- our 89 year old voter to whom he was referred we're not nothing's taking away
- the other areas to vote so if you're 89 and you can't come to a polling site we
- will send travel board to you the board has voted to send to hospitals outside
- of Monroe County if you want to vote on Election Day and you can't make it
- because you are infirm or any that that tends I don't know a time that we've
- turned it down except for were they in Chicago we didn't go to Chicago because
- that travel board that's all they would have done done is gone up and I have a
- comment for the end I want to hear everybody else's comments in terms of
- the increase in voter turnout I have something to say about that thank you
- hey do you have any other public comment
- seeing none then we'll bring it back to the board I was just gonna say I assume
- that means then you're gonna we're gonna be wrapping this up I was on the phone
- earlier today we had the executive board had a call with a vendor and so after
- the meeting I reached out to the president about something else and I just
- made a comment I didn't ask pro against anything I just made a comment that we
- had a public meeting tonight on vote centers and she said this is one of my
- clerk's siblings it's seriously the best thing since buttered bread she said we
- never had an inch of trouble or regret and she said voters love emphasizing the
- word love that they don't get turned away from being at the wrong polling
- location it reduces frustration and it reduces provisional voting and so I
- asked her if I could quote her today because especially for my IU students I
- love you we had a significant number of IU students who tried to vote at the
- Union and they were not successful I want to be clear publicly that was not
- any doing of the Monroe County Election Board or my office we believe that there
- was a third what do I want to say club organization something that kind of but
- it themselves up to our people and gave out wrong information letting those
- students think that they could bring their ballots down to election central
- and that we had nothing to do that with that we don't know who that organization
- was or why they would give out that misinformation I am so very sorry that
- that happened but I just want you to know that that had nothing to do with
- the clerk's office or the Monroe County Election Board thank you I do want to
- make a comment about the provisional ballot hearing day on our provisional
- ballot daily hearing day we had 390 provisional ballots that we reviewed 300
- of which of those were from the IMU alone and 280 of them were just solely
- from being at the wrong location and the other 20 were for not being registered
- voters in Monroe County or Indiana see no other correct so on provisional day any
- ballots that were casted at the incorrect location cannot be accepted
- just a reminder that we'll have our second hearing May 19th members of the
- public are encouraged if they're so inclined to comment on the proposal
- prior to the 19th you can either do it electronically with the online form or
- send your comments to election central I think as we move this forward I think
- there are a couple of questions that or a couple of points we'll want to
- emphasize I know that the committee referenced that the current plan with 29
- precincts ensures that there's a vote center in every township does it require
- that there's a vote center in every township or it's just part of the plan
- but we can amend the plan at this level right the other thing that I was
- interested in is that you know the elephant in the room that we haven't
- talked about is fiscal impact and while it's councilmember Decker reference in
- his comments that's kind of the responsibility of the County Council but
- the election board is charged with putting together budgets for the
- administration elections too so I think we'll want to have that information
- prior to us taking a formal vote on on this and and I mentioned this at a
- previous meeting just think that's going to be important to know for all of us to
- be able to vote up or down I don't think our primary responsibility as an
- election board is on the cost side of things but we do have an obligation to
- you know put together those numbers for others so I think it would be hard to
- vote for something without having a reasonable us and with that I you know
- the bells are tolling so I think that's probably a cue here but I really
- appreciate everyone coming to today's hearing for all of you who participated
- thank you for your input in the room or and online and we will look forward to
- continuing to receive input up until the hearing on May 19th thank you all
- (orchestral music)