It’s election day in Indiana.
Brown County Democrat reporters are fanning out across all polling places to see how in-person voting is going. We’ll be adding to this blog throughout the day.
Check back at bcdemocrat.com after 6 p.m. today to see election results as they arrive.
Here’s the information we’ve gathered from polling places so far:
3:30 p.m. Friday, May 30
Near the close of polls Friday, 335 voters from across the county had walked in to Brown County Intermediate School to vote early absentee, with 1 1/2 more days of early voting to go. The in-person absentee voting period was from May 26 to June 1.
All pollworkers and most voters wore masks.
Election “sheriff” Cash Myers was armed with a mask, gloves and a spray bottle, sanitizing everything they touched before the next voter used it.
“I asked for a Taser and they gave me this,” the college student joked, holding the sanitizer.
Myers said the experience had been “interesting, to say the least.” This was his first time working an election.
In addition to keeping all the equipment clean during in-person early voting, Myers had helped process mail-in absentee ballot applications, which he estimated at about 1,400 total. Normally, mail-in absentee ballots number less than 200, but more voters decided to choose that option out of concern during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About working the election, Myers was “roped into it,” but he didn’t have anything else to do anyway, he said. What he was doing to clean everything seemed to help put people at ease, and he was glad to do that.
Pollworker Deb Noe said it wasn’t unusual for people to stand in line to vote, and it had been like that all day. Everyone standing in line was asked to stay 6 feet apart from each other.
Pollworker Julie Cauble said the turnout appeared to be about normal for the last week of in-person absentee voting. That period usually lasts a month, but it was shortened to a week because of COVID.
11:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 2
Inspecting of mail-in absentee ballots has begun at Brown County Intermediate School, which is functioning as the county clerk’s office today, primary election day.
The Brown County Election Board is checking to make sure the signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes match the signatures on voters’ records.
Election board President Amy Kelso reported that the board had found several more mail-in ballots that contain questionable initials — not of voters, but of board representatives.
Each absentee ballot is supposed to bear the signatures of one Democrat and one Republican election board member, showing that both parties inspected the ballot before it was given to the voter.
The board had been investigating how one ballot came to bear the initials of two election board representatives, but those signatures did not match the way they actually sign their initials.
The board had known of one ballot with this concern, but this shows that there are more of them.
Concerns also have come up with ballots that came from residents at Brown County Health & Living Community. Usually, a bipartisan absentee voter board can go to voters who are unable to physically get out and vote on election day, like at the nursing home. However, because of COVID-19 restrictions, visitation is very limited at the nursing home.
Kelso said that Brown County Clerk Kathy Smith arranged for ballots to be dropped off at the nursing home and a nursing home staff member helped residents vote. The procedure is for a Democrat and a Republican representative to be present when voting is happening. The election board found out that this was the way voting there was conducted when a nursing home resident’s child contacted them, Kelso said.
Kelso said that she and Williams would be going out to the nursing home, but she didn’t plan to have those residents revote; she planned for those ballots to just be initialed and to get a statement from the person in the nursing home who helped them vote.
Absentee voting results — from in-person and mail-in early voters — will not be released until after the walk-in polls close today at 6 p.m.
11:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 2 at Van Buren Elementary
Turnout at the Van Buren Township polling location was lighter than normal, but voters were still making their way in at a steady pace at 11 a.m.
“Steady and brisk,” clerk Victor Bongard said of the voter turnout.
Most voters were in and out within a few minutes.
After filling out their paper ballots, voters walked over to the machine to feed their ballot into a machine to get counted. Some voters chose to take their pens with them, while others handed them off to a poll worker to be sanitized for the next round.
As soon as they left, the poll workers also would sanitize each ballot booth.
At noon, Van Buren was up to 200 paper ballots cast and 11 electronic ballots.
The area outside the elementary school gym was not nearly as busy as in years past, with only two Republican political signs for President Donald Trump and treasurer candidate Andy Vasquez-Bond at the entrance to the playground area. In years past, political signs from both parties lined the fence.
Inside the fenced in area, or “chute,” stood a single white tent with two political candidates sitting underneath: Democrat Kevin Fleming, who is running for Brown County Council, and Democrat Ron Fleetwood, who is running for Brown County commissioner. Fleming is also the Democrat precinct committeeman for Van Buren Township.
Neither men have opponents in this primary election, but they were sitting in the shade of the tent introducing themselves to passing voters. No handshakes can be given out under social distancing guidelines, but Fleetwood said he did an elbow bump with a voter.
Republican Precinct Committeeman Ben Phillips stood on the other side of the fence speaking with the two candidates.
“This is the first time in 20 years I haven’t set up a Republican tent because there’s really no need for it with social distancing,” Phillips said.
Inside the gym, inspector Phil Krueger said that voters had experienced a couple of “glitches” using the new voting equipment, but no major issues were reported and everyone was able to cast their votes so far.
Sharon Armstrong has been voting in Van Buren Township for 18 years. This time around was “quick and easy,” she said.
Armstrong said it was important for her to get out and cast her vote, even in a pandemic.
“I’m not scared. It’s important to vote,” she said.
1 p.m. Tuesday, June 2 at Brown County High School
All polling locations were moved for this election, as the Brown County Election Board tried to comply with recommendations for social distancing during the pandemic. Many of the normal voting locations weren’t big enough to space voters out while they waited.
This means that all voters in the northern half of the county had to come to Nashville to vote instead of going to a polling place nearer their homes.
Jackson and Hamblen township voters were moved to Brown County High School; Washington Township voters were moved to Brown County Intermediate School; and Van Buren Township voters went back to a familiar polling place: Van Buren Elementary School.
Taylor Rosebrock, 25, normally votes at the Fruitdale volunteer fire station in Bean Blossom, but drove into Nashville to vote at the high school.
“This station wasn’t as close for me as in the past, but I feel like it was efficient,” she said. “It went very smoothly.”
Jocelyn Bock, 27, said she enjoyed voting at the high school more than the original Bean Blossom location.
“I went to high school here, so I actually preferred this polling station because it was cool to come back and I know the building better,” she said.
Bock also said that this was her first time voting on paper rather than electronically.
“I think it may have actually been a little easier on paper, definitely less complicated,” she said. “I’m sure that it was also easier for voters that aren’t as familiar with computers too.”
Overall, she thought the switch in location went smoothly.
“I didn’t see any problems or issues today. Overall it went really well,” Bock said.
Multiple voters at the Jackson Township polling site said while leaving that they were upset to see poll workers wearing masks.
“That is just awful, they’re wearing a bunch of masks in there,” one unidentified man said after submitting his ballot.
1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the satellite election office
Outside Brown County Intermediate School, Sherrie Mitchell, a Democrat, and Mike Harrison, a Republican, were helping direct voters where to go. Three polling places in two different buildings were sharing the same parking area on the Nashville schools campus.
“I think today is working quite well,” said Harrison, who was hired along with Mitchell to be an election technician. Basically, that meant setting up voting machines and being a “go-fer,” he said.
Mitchell called herself “the Walmart greeter of the election board.”
“This is super fun. I’ve had a good time,” she said, as she waved another voter on toward the high school to find his polling place with a “Thank you for voting!”
Inside the BCIS cafeteria, it was much more quiet.
Three bipartisan teams were going through every absentee ballot – more than 1,500 of them – and checking for various signatures – the voter’s and two members of the election board. Once they were verified, the ballots were fed into the electronic vote totaling machine.
If a voter’s signature was missing on either an absentee ballot application or a ballot, or if there was a question about whether the signatures matched, that ballot would go to election board members Kelso and Williams for review.
If either the Democrat or Republican election board member’s initials were missing from the back of the ballot, those went into a pile, too. If a ballot was not initialed by both parties, those ballots cannot be counted, Williams said.
There was another pile of ballots with questionable initials from board members – the issue the election board has been investigating. Williams didn’t want to say how many they’d found yet; he said he’d be writing a formal report.
Aside from the concern about the initials, Williams said the percentage of absentee ballots they’d flagged for problems wasn’t much different than normal, considering how many people used that method to vote this year. “It’s not good, but it’s not a huge surprise,” he said. “We’ve taken every opportunity to match up signatures where we can.”
Moments later, the power flickered and went out. A collective groan went up around the room before the lights came back on.
The outage also affected the three voting locations at the Nashville schools campus.
All voting machines and poll books were equipped with battery backups, so they would recover, said Janet Buchanan, the technician from the voting equipment company who was on site all day in case of problems. Behind her, the vote counting machines were powering back up.
Deputy Clerk Laura Wert ran over to the high school to check on the two townships voting there. “Everything’s good,” she reported, striding back to BCIS across the parking lot. “The battery packs are awesome.”
2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Brown County High School
Vicki Harden was working as the sheriff for the Jackson Township polling place, responsible for crowd control and helping voters get to where they need to be. This is her first year as a poll worker, but she’s a longtime voter.
“This year we have all new machines, ones that I haven’t seen before,” she said.
Last fall, the election board decided to look at different machines and vendors, as the county’s long-running contract for election equipment was expiring. The board decided to go with a hybrid paper-and-electronic system whereby voters can mark ballots on paper and then feed them into a machine to count their votes.
Voters also have a touch-screen voting option if they are disabled or just like that machine better. The touch-screen machine spits out a paper receipt which must then be fed into the vote-counting machine.
Harden said the change in equipment hadn’t caused any problems.
“I think people prefer to use paper ballots. I know that I do,” she said. “We haven’t had any issues so far today and a majority of voters seem happy with the process.”
3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the BCHS parking lot
The Brown County Republicans were stationed in the Brown County High School/Brown County Intermediate School parking lot under a white tent bearing “Trump 2020” and American flags.
Current county treasurer Mary Smith, 39, was there to answer any questions voters may have as well as pass out campaign materials. Smith is currently running for county recorder.
“We’re just out here to support voters,” she said. “It’s a beautiful day and we just want to assist when we can.”
Smith also was there to support Andy Vasquez Bond, the Republican candidate for county treasurer. Smith has served her two terms as treasurer and is now endorsing Bond for the next term.
“Well, since the parade and the fair have been cancelled, we took this as an opportunity to pass out Andy’s campaign paraphernalia and support her,” Smith said.
In addition to free Bond campaign materials, as well as Trump 2020 bumper stickers and fans, the group was selling Brown County Republican hats and T-shirts. The tent, which had been set up since 6 a.m., had already sold out of hats by 3 p.m.
Smith, who had been at the tent since around 1 p.m., said she thinks it is important to be open and available to constituents.
“We just want to be involved in the community and interact with voters whenever we can,” she said.
4 p.m. Tuesday at Brown County High School
Steven Osborn has been voting in Brown County for over 40 years, and said that today was a lot easier than previous years.
“It was nice that all the stations were in central locations,” he said. “It made it a lot simpler and easier to find. Usually I have to go out of my way to vote.”
Osborn said that the new voting machines made the entire process easier for him as well. “The new machines worked really well I thought,” he said. “It made submitting my ballot easier.”
Elizabeth Voland said that today’s voting process seemed more efficient to her than previous elections. “In my opinion, this year’s station was a lot better than the past,” she said. “Last election it seemed a little congested and this year’s location seemed more effective.”
Voland said that in addition to the new machines and polling setup, her polling place location also benefited her. She passed by it on her way home from work.
Working at the satellite clerk’s office at BCIS, election board members Williams and Kelso said that this revised polling place setup is showing them that further consolidation can happen and work pretty well.
Normally, Brown County has 12 polling places spread out over 10 buildings across the county. This year, because of COVID, voters are going to four locations in three buildings.
The election board was planning to look into switching to vote centers in 2021. In counties with vote centers, voters can go to any polling location to vote, not just the one in their own township or precinct.
Having ample parking is important if you’re trying to vote a large number of people in one spot, Williams pointed out. The Nashville schools campus parking lots work well for that.
However, this also is probably going to be a low-turnout election for in-person voting, so that needs to be taken into consideration if any changes are made for future election years, Kelso added.
This was Brendan Redmond’s first time voting in Brown County since moving here from Indianapolis. He said the voting process didn’t differ much from Marion County, but that that was a good thing.
“Today went really smoothly,” he said. “It wasn’t crowded, there was plenty of parking and I thought the location was a good spot. They used the same machines as Marion County and I think they work really efficiently. I had no problems.”
Redmond initially didn’t know where to go upon arriving at the BCHS parking lot, but the election workers were immediately helpful and pointed him in the right direction. He said the poll workers were a major positive for him.
“Everyone I interacted with was very polite and helpful,” he said. “I really appreciate them. I know it is a thankless job, but I want them to know I really thank them for this work.”
