The ballot of candidates for local offices for the May 5 primary election has been set.
County recorder: (R) Mary E. Smith
County treasurer: (R) Andy Vasquez Bond, (R) Kyle Clark, (R) Carlos Lopez
County surveyor: (D) David K. Harden
County commissioner District 1 (Hamblen Township): (D) Tracey Callahan Burnett (R) Charles “Chuck” Braden, (R) Blake Wolpert
County commissioner District 3 (Van Buren Township and Washington Township voting precincts 1-3): (D) Ronald E. Fleetwood, (R) Jerry Lee Pittman
County council at-large (three seats): (D) Kevin G. Fleming, (D) Melissa K. Parker, (R) David Critser, (R) Jim Kemp, (R) Scott Rudd, (R) Judith “Judy” Swift-Powdrill
Republican precinct committeemen (one from each voting precinct in each township): Cindy Rose Wolpert (Hamblen 1), Mark Bowman (Hamblen 2), Phil Stephens (Hamblen 3), Deborah Newlin Goodrich (Jackson 1), Diana McDonald Biddle, Greg S. Smith (Jackson 2), Sandra K. Higgins (Jackson 3), Larry L. Gardner (Jackson 4), Karen Raub, Dave Redding (Washington 1), Michael J. Magner, Larry Voris, (Washington 2), Tracey Yeager Stogsdill (Washington 4), Ben Phillips (Van Buren)
Democrat state convention delegates (six needed): Kevin G. Fleming, Linda C. Lawson, Melissa K. Parker, Paula Staley, Larry E. “Levi” Voils III, M.K. Watkins, Linda Welty
Republican state convention delegates (six needed): Diana McDonald Biddle, Heather Nicholson, Ben Phillips, Kathy Grimes Smith, Greg S. Smith, W. Clint Studabaker, Jennifer Voris, Larry Voris, Laura A. Wert, Cindy Rose Wolpert
State and national offices also will be on primary ballots.
Primary elections are party-specific. Voters can only pull one party’s ballot or the other when they vote in the May 5 election; they cannot choose candidates who are both Democrats and Republicans. During the general election in November, voters can choose candidates from any party because they’re all on the ballot together.
Before the general
Candidates still have time to add their names to the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The deadline to file paperwork is noon Tuesday, June 30 for independent or minor party candidates; write-in candidates have until noon Monday, July 6 to file their declarations of intent. If a major party didn’t have a candidate on the ballot for an office during the primary, that party can still add a candidate up until June 30.
All candidates have to live in the district they are representing.
Two school board seats also will be on the ballot in November. They are both at-large seats, but both of the winning candidates can’t come from the same voting district, explained President Carol Bowden. (This is a change from information that has been printed in past papers.)
School board candidates do not have to declare a party because they do not run under party labels.
Contact the Brown County clerk’s office, on the first floor of the Brown County Courthouse, for more information about candidacy. The phone number is 812-988-5510. Forms and information also can be found at in.gov/sos/elections/2395.htm.
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If you’re in the habit of voting in-person absentee before Election Day, take note: You won’t be voting at the County Office Building anymore.
On Feb. 5, the Brown County Commissioners voted to move in-person absentee voting to the lower level of Veterans Hall at Deer Run Park, in the former Community Corrections office.
The room at the County Office Building that had been used for absentee voting has become an office for the county’s IT department.
Brown County Election Board President Amy Kelso had wanted to see absentee voting stay in the County Office Building, like moving it to the meeting room upstairs, but not all election board members agreed on that, and the county commissioners decided to move it. They’re going to take multiple measures to inform voters of the move.
Any registered voter can cast a ballot early, up to a month before Election Day, by visiting the absentee voting site. As a group, absentee voters from all over the county have become the county’s largest voting “precinct,” Kelso said.
The first day of absentee voting this year will be Tuesday, April 7. A schedule for when the absentee voting site will be open will be released in the coming weeks.
Also, Washington 1 voters: If you’re used to going to North Salem Methodist Church on State Road 46 East to vote on Election Day, that’s not where you’re going to go anymore.
On Jan. 8, the commissioners voted to move the polling place for Washington 1 to The Pentecostals church at State Road 46 East and Mt. Liberty Road. The reason was because of concerns about traffic coming quickly off the hill near North Salem, causing some near-misses with voters leaving or entering the parking lot.
These polling place changes will take effect for the May 2020 election. All households containing registered voters will be receiving a postcard with this information.
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The deadline for residents to register to vote in Brown County in the May 5 primary election is midnight Monday, April 6. You may register at the county clerk’s office, at Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices, or at indianavoters.com.
Local election officials stress that it is important for all residents to check their voter registration status. A series of statewide mailings went out last year in an effort to “clean up” voter lists of people who were deceased or no longer lived in their listed county. If a second postcard was returned “undeliverable” to the state voter registration office or if there was no forwarding address, it is possible that that voter was put on the “inactive” voter list.
A list of “inactive” voters will be posted on the county’s website, browncounty-in.gov, so that people can take steps to make themselves “active” if they were made “inactive” by mistake.
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