Twenty-two voters were given provisional ballots during the Brown County primary election, but not all of them counted after the Brown County Election Board reviewed them.
Thirteen of those provisional ballots went to people who were challenged at the polls for various reasons.
Nine of the 13 were not on the poll lists at the places where they went to vote. Three of them were registered in other counties. Two went to the wrong polling place thinking they were registered there, but they hadn’t changed their registration when they moved out of another precinct.
Two had been “canceled” out of the voter registration system because they had been inactive voters and did not respond to mailings.
One person had registered at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles; the BMV said it was their fault that that person’s name didn’t get put into the voter system properly. One said he had registered at the BMV as well, but there was no record of him having done that, said Brown County Clerk Brenda Woods.
The other four of those 13 had no information turned in with the ballots that would explain why the voters were challenged, Woods said. That is one of the duties of poll officials.
The remainder of the provisional ballots were given to nine people at three polls because of problems with their electronic pollbooks. Rather than make the voters wait or turn them away, the poll workers gave them provisional ballots, which the Brown County Election Board later accepted as “emergency ballots.”
Technically, emergency ballots are only supposed to be used when there’s a voter issue, not a machine issue, but the Indiana Election Division allowed this use, said Election Board member Susanne Gaudin.
However, those emergency ballots had to be signed by the poll clerks from both parties. In several cases, only one poll clerk signed in the correct place. Also, on one of the ballots, a voter’s name was written on the top. Votes are supposed to be anonymous.
Gaudin called for a review of how this election went so that adjustments in training or other measures can be made before the general election in November.
The counting of the accepted ballots resulted in additional votes for many candidates, but no change in the outcome of any race. The new, official totals for candidates who picked up more votes are:
U.S. Senate: (R) Mike Braun 933 (+5), (R) Luke Messer 575 (+1), (D) Joe Donnelly 1,122 (+4)
U.S. Congress: (R) James D. Alspach 564 (+1), (R) Trey Hollingsworth 1,677 (+5), (D) Dan Canon 228 (+4), (D) Liz Watson 916 (+3)
State Rep. Dist. 65: (R) Chris D. May 1,844 (+6), (D) Jared Stancombe 1,008 (+6)
Brown Circuit Court judge: (R) Jacob Moore 366 (+1), (R) Tracey Yeager Stogsdill 887 (+2), (R) Mary Wertz 1,106 (+3), (D) Kristopher Kritzer 645 (+7)
Brown County prosecutor: (R) Ted Adams 2,029 (+5)
Brown Circuit Court clerk: (R) Deb Noe 1,035 (+3), (R) Kathy Smith 1,098 (+3), (D) Brenda Woods 1,420 (+7)
Brown County auditor: (R) Julia B. Reeves 1,908 (+6), (D) Beth Williamson Mulry 1,124 (+6)
Brown County sheriff: (R) Scott Southerland 2,110 (+5)
Brown County coroner: (R) Earl Piper 2,091 (+6)
Brown County assessor: (R) Mari H. Miller 2,012 (+6)
Commissioner Dist. 2: (R) Diana McDonald Biddle 1,156 (+2), (R) John Kennard 407 (+1), (R) Ronald A. Sanders 669 (+3), (D) Kyle Birkemeier 785 (+4), Jeff Fox 352 (+3)
County council Dist. 1: (R) Bill Hamilton 473 (+1), (D) Debra Guffey 211 (+1)
County council Dist. 2: (R) Darren Byrd 442 (+1)
County council Dist. 3: (D) Roger Kelso 334 (+4)
Washington Township trustee: (R) Brandon Edens Magner 705 (+4), (D) Paul D. Hardin 436 (+5)
Jackson Township trustee: (R) Sandra K. Higgins 571 (+1)
Hamblen Township trustee: (R) Phil Stephens 494 (+1)
Washington Township Advisory Board: (R) Tim Cunningham 645 (+4), (D) Stefanie Gore 455 (+6)
Jackson Township Advisory Board: (R) James E. Kakavecos 349 (+1), (R) Sandra D. Pool 476 (+1)
Hamblen Township Advisory Board: (R) Freida Milnes 340 (+1)
Republican state convention delegates: Mark Bowman 1,326 (+4), Robyn Bowman 1,229 (+3), Ben Phillips 1,362 (+2), Phil Stephens 1,437 (+4)
Democrat state convention delegates: Teri Bleuel 717 (+4), Herbert Brown 460 (+2), Nancy K. Brown 728 (+4), Kevin G. Fleming 516 (+2), James Lowell Oliver 817 (+7), Larry E. Voils III 512 (+3), MK Watkins 596 (+3), Linda Welty 846 (+4)
