It didn’t look the same, but that didn’t keep people away. Brown County showed up to vote on primary election day, June 2.
Voters could go to one of only three buildings to cast their vote instead of the normal 10; fewer political signs were posted about; there were no handshakes from candidates vying for support; and lines of voters spaced about wearing masks were visible at all locations.
A total of 3,135 ballots were cast, including 1,395 in-person early or mail-in ballots. Turnout was 25.68 percent — lower than any election since the 2014 primary, when it was 25 percent.
Election results were to be certified at a meeting of the Brown County Election Board on Friday, June 12.
The board plans to meet in July to talk through what went well and what didn’t during the primary.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Polling locations were reduced to three buildings this year because of the inability to socially-distance at other polls to guard against transmission of COVID-19, and because of concern about a lack of poll workers since many were in the high-risk category of being 65 and over.
Washington Township voters voted at Brown County Intermediate School, while Hamblen and Jackson township voters cast their ballots at Brown County High School. Van Buren Township voters went to the elementary school.
Abby Glasser voted at BCIS. She said the polling location setup was self-explanatory and she felt safe with the safety precautions.
“It feels like they put some thought into it to try and make certain precautions that meet the CDC guidelines. You can tell they definitely thought that through,” she said.
For Glasser, voting is a privilege she will always utilize. “No matter the circumstances surrounding, a pandemic or not, you should vote,” she said.
“I was glad to be able to come out. … The process was great.”
Others were not as comfortable.
“That is just awful, they’re wearing a bunch of masks in there,” one unidentified man said after submitting his ballot at BCHS.
Doris Kinnaird, who served as the election “sheriff” at BCIS, said most voters came into the polling place wearing masks.
“There are some that aren’t, and that’s OK. It’s their choice. We all are wearing one here that are working, but they get hot,” she said.
Washington Township voter Liberty Jacobs said she was worried the polls would be hectic because of virus restrictions, but after she voted, she said the process went really smoothly.
Slightly more voters than normal chose to vote early to try to avoid crowds. During the 2016 presidential primary, 1,206 Brown Countians chose to vote early either in person or by mail. This year, 1,395 absentee ballots were counted.
Near the close of polls Friday, May 30, 335 voters from across the county had walked in to BCIS 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.
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, Myers had helped process mail-in absentee ballot applications, which he estimated at about 1,400. Normally, mail-in absentee ballots number less than 200.
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 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.
‘The American way’
All four Washington Township precincts voted in one location at the Brown County Intermediate School.
“I had a few people not know where to go,” said inspector Tina Higgins. This was her third time working as an inspector, and she also has been a precinct committeeman for Washington 3 for 25 years.
“The location change was a little bit of a hiccup. I think I had one lady who was upset, but then I had maybe three or four more that just said, ‘Hey, it would have been nice to have a sign on the door of the polling places that have changed.’”
BCIS was also the site where voters could come to drop off their mail-in ballots before noon. Higgins said they had a couple of people bring in ballots for other people with a signed note explaining they had given that person their ballot to bring in. Those were given to the election board for review to see if the signatures matched on the note and the ballot.
If someone came in after the noon deadline with a mail-in ballot, Higgins had them surrender that ballot and they were issued a new ballot that they could use to vote in person that day at the polling site.
“We didn’t turn anybody away as long as they had their ballot,” she said.
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.
Most voters were in and out within a few minutes.
“We got right in and we’re done,” voter Sharon Western said.
“We have waited in line before, sometimes at the door, but it’s been years ago, not recently. It was pretty benign. I’m just disappointed in not a lot of candidates, but it’s the primary, too. It’ll be busier in the fall.”
Armstrong has been voting in Van Buren Township for 18 years. She said it was important for her to get out and cast her vote, even in a pandemic.
“I’m not scared. It’s important,” she said.
“That’s the American way.”
After casting her ballot, 82-year-old Barbara Livesey made her way back outside Van Buren to discuss the weight her vote carried this time around.
“We are failing the human race. Some people think we are separate, like black and white, and it seems to me we are all the human race,” she said.
“As I drove here, I was thinking, I’m not a hateful person, but I’m extremely upset about the present time and this past week and the death of George Floyd,” referring to the black man who died at the hands of police officers in Minnesota.
She voted for candidates she hopes will help the country to be better. “I must do it. I have not missed voting,” she said.
“If those people can go and risk their lives, I will certainly be here to vote.”
Paper vs. electronic
Vicki Harden was working as the sheriff for the Jackson Township polling place. This was 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 mark ballots on paper and then feed them into a machine to count their votes.
Voters also had a touch-screen voting option if they were disabled or just liked that machine better. That 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 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.”
Kinnaird said she had heard a few complaints from voters about having to use paper ballots.
Jacobs, a Washington Township voter, said she liked the paper option this year because she likes seeing all of her options on one page.
“I don’t understand why we went to paper ballots. We were used to voting on the electronic (machines),” Western said at Van Buren.
Voter Sharon Armstrong said she liked the paper ballots because she has trouble sometimes navigating technology. “Very quick and easy,” Armstrong said of her voting experience.
Before the polls opened, Higgins said some of the machines at the Washington Township polling place were still in training mode and had to be switched over to their election day mode, but that was done before doors opened to voters.
A poll worker at the Hamblen polling location, who did not feel comfortable giving her name, said that this election was the worst she’s ever worked in 40 years.
The day got off to a rocky start with the poll books being in training mode, causing voters to wait about 30 minutes before they could vote. There was also confusion about the electronic voting machines and who could use them.
Also, materials she was used to having first thing — like the Voter’s Bill of Rights to post where voters could see it — did not arrive until about 10 a.m. She also felt like training was not adequate.
She said several voters came in who had requested absentee ballots in the mail but never received them. “The vote is their integrity,” she said, “and I’m going to make sure they can vote.”
Van Buren inspector Phil Krueger said that voters had experienced a couple of “glitches” using the new equipment, but no major issues were reported and everyone was able to vote.
“With anything new, there will always be glitches here and there. These machines are so much better,” he said.
Around 1 p.m., the power in Nashville flickered and went out. The momentary outage affected all the three voting locations at the Nashville schools campus and the satellite clerk’s office that was set up at BCIS.
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.”
Location changes
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.
One poll worker at Hamblen said that to come to Nashville from the Cordry-Sweetwater area was “quite the haul,” and she was concerned about what the turnout might be if the locations remained the same in November.
Some voters did not know where to go, a Hamblen poll worker reported. “No one was answering the phones at the clerk’s office,” she said. “All the little things that could have been done were anthills that turned into molehills.”
Hamblen voter Ronald Grabenhofer used to vote at Sprunica, but the change did not put him out at all. “This is all new to everybody,” he said, “so with that, you’ve gotta be patient.”
Outside BCIS, Sherrie Mitchell, a Democrat, and Mike Harrison, a Republican, were helping direct voters where to go since three polling places in two different buildings were sharing the same parking area on the Nashville schools campus.
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!”
Pandemic campaigning
The Brown County Republicans were stationed in the BCHS/BCIS parking lot under a white tent bearing “Trump 2020” and American flags.
Brown County Treasurer Mary Smith, 39, was there to answer any questions voters had as well as pass out campaign materials. Smith is currently running for county recorder. She also was there to support Andy Vasquez Bond, the Republican candidate for treasurer. Smith has served her two terms and is now endorsing Bond.
Campaigning is more challenging this year since the Spring Blossom Parade and the fair were both canceled, she 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.
The area outside Van Buren was not nearly as busy as in years past, with only two signs for Trump and Vasquez Bond at the entrance to the playground. In years past, signs from both parties lined the fence.
Inside the fence stood a single white tent with two candidates underneath: Democrat Kevin Fleming, who is running for Brown County Council, and Democrat Ron Fleetwood, who is running for Brown County commissioner.
Neither men had opponents in this election, but they were sitting in the shade introducing themselves to voters. No handshakes are supposed be given out during the pandemic, 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.
Future vote centers?
Steven Osborn has been voting in Brown County for over 40 years, and said this time was a lot easier. “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.”
Elizabeth Voland agreed. She liked that she passed by her polling location at the high school on her way home from work.
Working at the satellite clerk’s office at BCIS, election board members Mark Williams and Amy Kelso said that this revised polling place setup is showing them that further consolidation can happen and work pretty well.
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, normal turnout for an election needs to be taken into consideration if any changes are made for future election years, Kelso added. And usually, schools are not available as voting locations because they’re in session.
This was Brendan Redmond’s first time voting in Brown County since moving from Indianapolis. He said the voting process didn’t differ much from Marion County, and that that was a good thing.
“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,” he said.
Redmond initially didn’t know where to go upon arriving at the BCHS parking lot, but the election workers were immediately helpful.
“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.”
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Total ballots cast: 3,135, including 1,395 in-person early or mail-in ballots.
Total turnout: 25.68 percent — lower than any election since the 2014 primary, when it was 25 percent. During the last presidential primary in 2016, turnout was 48 percent.
Party breakdown: More Democrats voted early/absentee than did Republicans — 761 Dems vs. 634 GOP. However, overall, more Republican ballots were pulled than Democrat — almost exactly a 60-40 split. That split has been fairly consistent here since at least 2014.
Sources: Brown County clerk’s office and Brown County Democrat files
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