By SUZANNAH COUCH and ABIGAIL YOUMANS
Election Day is here and the polls will be open until 6 p.m. for voters to cast their ballots.
The Brown County Democrat requested credentials for 10 people to act as media watchers for the 2022 primary election today (May 3). Most will be our runners tonight, gathering election results as they are printed from the ballot-scanning machines and driving them back to the newspaper office so we can report totals as they come in.
Reporter-photographer Abigail Youmans and Editor Suzannah Couch are also gathering information today as voting is taking place. We have rules to follow about who we can talk to and when when we are acting as watchers, though, so, voters, we could use your help in reporting what you’re experiencing as you vote. Email [email protected] or call us at 812-988-2221.
We’ll be posting running vote totals on bcdemocrat.com and on our Facebook page tonight sometime after polls close at 6 p.m.
Unlike years past, two major races will most likely be decided this primary election — sheriff and clerk –- as no Democratic candidates have filed to run for those offices this fall. Independent candidates still have until July to file to run for office at the local, state and federal levels, which could also change the races this fall.
Early voting started on April 5 and ended yesterday at noon. During that time, around 800 ballots were cast in-person at the Salmon Room in the County Office Building or by mailing a ballot in.
Early voting, Salmon Room
10:30 a.m. Brown County Election Board members Mark Williams and Kevin Fleming were in the Salmon Room checking over the ballots that were mailed in or cast early alongside Absentee Voter Board members Julie Cauble and Deb Noe.
“This is just triple checking,” Noe said.
The ballots were being organized into stacks of 50 after members checked the signatures on each ballot to ensure they had been signed by an election board member or their proxy before given to a voter, as required by election law.
No ballots had been discovered that were not signed by an election board member, Noe said.
During an investigation into a duplicate ballot complaint ahead of the 2020 primary election, election board members eventually found 123 ballots that had initials on them which were not in election board members’ handwriting. Those ballots were taken into the custody of law enforcement.
If a voter marked a ballot using a checkmark the election board and absentee voter board members filled in the checkmark then signed the ballot to indicate they had done so without changing a voter’s vote.
“If they use check marks then we have to fill them in then we initial that we had to fill in the checkmark,” Noe said.
All ballots cast early and in person along with those that were mailed in will be ran through the voting machine when polls close at 6 p.m.
Early voting turnout is low compared to last primary election. But Noe said the turnout was expected to be lower since this is not a presidential election and that turnout is usually lower for primary elections.
As far as early voting goes, Noe said there were no major problems with machines or equipment.
“Generally speaking everything went very well,” she said.
Noe added that the last three days of early, in-person voting had a steady stream of voters.
“There was someone in here all the time. It seemed like when someone was driving out, someone was driving in. But no one had to wait in line,” she said.
“Voters said it was easier to vote in-person early. A lot of people were going to be gone. But they do love coming in because it was 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. We are here on two Saturdays. It’s easier for people who have to work and cannot take off.”
Election board President Mark Williams said the process of checking early voting ballots this primary election is “much more orderly because the volumes are not so huge.”
“The mechanics are exactly the same. We just don’t have nearly as much to process. We do not have as many workers either. There were four times this many people processing absentee ballots at the last election,” he said.
Van Buren precinct (Southern Brown Volunteer Fire Department)
11:30 a.m. Southern Brown Volunteer Fire Department is the only polling location in Van Buren Township and as of 1:30 p.m. today 195 ballots had been cast.
Van Buren Inspector Phil Kruger said the turnout is average for a primary election.
Out of the four types — general primary, general, presidential primary and presidential — the turnout for the general primary election is the lowest, he said.
If this were a presidential election, he said, there would be about 250 or 300 votes cast at by noon at that precinct.
He has worked between 10 and 20 elections.
The ratio between Republican and Democrat ballots was about 10:1, Kruger said.
There was a problem earlier in the day with the ballot machine, but they ended up getting it sorted out.
Between 11:30 a.m. and noon, a new problem arose.
Two voters stepped up to the machine after filling out their ballots. When they tried to insert ballots into the machine, the screen said “Invalid ballot page.”
Ballots were then “spat out” by the machine.
The board placed ballots into the exterior emergency box, on the backside of the machine, a feature used in the event of a power outage that may keep the machine from accepting ballots.
Those ballots would then be entered into the machine once the issue was resolved. Technicians soon arrived and cleaned the machine, resolving the issue, Kruger said.
“It seems to be working fine. They (the technicians) said they have been having this problem throughout the area. Ours is not the first,” he said.
Kruger added that all ballots that were initially rejected had been cast and were now “official.”
A voter whose ballot was rejected asked poll workers how they could ensure their vote was counted. Workers told her that they would place it in the separate box then send it through once the issue was resolved.
She said, “It’s kind of scary,” as she got her “I voted today” sticker and exited the building.
11:50 a.m. Voters Tim and Debbie Kelley said after they cast their ballot that the process was easy and that they vote in each election.
“We always vote, all of (the elections) are important,” Debbie said.
Debbie said she cared about all offices for which candidates were running.
She said she did all of her research beforehand, reading the Brown County Democrat and League of Women Voters’ election guide and watching candidate forums on YouTube.
“I don’t want to vote for someone I don’t know anything about,” she said.
Tim said he cares the most about the sheriff’s race. Republican candidates Scott Bowling, Brad Stogsdill and Chad Williams are all running for sheriff this primary election. No Democratic candidates are on the ballot for sheriff.
Voter turnout so far
2 p.m. Around 20% of the county’s voters have cast their vote so far today, including early votes, according to a report from Clerk Kathy Smith.
Smith reports that 1,569 voters had cast their vote today at a poll, which is 14% of the voting population. The precinct with the highest turnout is Washington 1 with 274 voters.
Hamblen 1 precinct (Sprunica Baptist Church)
2:30 p.m. Over at Sprunica Baptist Church, the turnout has been “pretty low,” poll inspector Sharlene Jones-Wall said.
Around 2:30 p.m. they had seen 130 people. One provisional ballot had been handed out and there were no challenges.
Jones-Wall said in the last election there were seven challenges and some of those individuals are on the ballot this year.
They did have technical issues with the poll book at the beginning of the day, causing them to be 12 minutes late in opening the doors to the four voters waiting outside.
“It’s sparse compared to other elections,” she said. “One of the lower primaries in a long time. Pretty weak.”
Despite the slow day, voters have been happy to cast their ballot and even offer help to the poll workers.
One voter brought White Castle boxes and another wanted to be put to work somehow.
Voter Michelle Havlin is also on the ballot this year as a state delegate, along with her husband Joseph.
Their church in Columbus has a group called “We the People” that discusses ways to make change in government, instead of “assuming that things are okay,” she said.
If elected, the Havlins will “stand on a platform of the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman,” she said.
She works at Sprunica Elementary School and at the Brown County State Park and said she likes to be involved in the community as much as she can be.
Havlin said this voting season is just as important to her as others.
She acknowledged the race for sheriff race is a “big one” this year and said that she was able to hear from all three candidates at the Republican breakfast held last month.
“I could really make an educated decision,” she said.
Jackson 1 and 2 precinct (Fruitdale Volunteer Fire Department)
3 p.m. It’s been a normal primary turnout at Fruitdale Volunteer Fire Department, where voters in precincts 1 and 2 of Jackson Township are casting their ballots.
Voters from Jackson 1 had cast 130 ballots as of 3 p.m. and 102 had been cast for Jackson 2.
No provisional ballots were issued and no challenges had been made.
Poll inspector Duane Parsons came back from vacation early to work the polls for the first time.
Like other precincts, they’ve experienced their share of technological issues.
The emergency box was home for 10 ballots until an issue with the return machine was resolved, the same issue that Van Buren had.
Parsons said it was determined that the ink from the ballot markers was leaving a smear on the glass reader of the machine.
They switched to ballpoint pens and had no issues.
A printer also went down and needed replaced.
“Relatively easy fixes,” Parsons said. “The tech people are very good and very busy.”
The whole idea of the day is to get people out to vote, Parsons said.
“Everybody should be able to go out the door having voted,” he said.
Cindy Golis, the Democratic judge, said even though there’s a monetary incentive for poll workers, to her it’s not about the money — she just likes to help.
An absentee voter who had forgotten to mail in their ballot came in and poll workers referred to the election guide book for help.
The ballot was taken by Parsons and “voided” and the voter was issued a new ballot.
Parsons said he will most likely help again in the future and came back early from vacation. Golis said that she will also return to serve at future elections.
3:30 p.m. Siblings Arianna Hunt, 18 and Christian Hunt, 20, walked out of Fruitdale Volunteer Fire Department after casting their votes, Arianna for the first time.
Arianna said when she saw a candidate’s promotional text message to her brother that she didn’t agree with, she decided that she would make her way to the polls.
It was important to Christian to vote in the primary election because it shows voters the political climate of the county and where it might lead at the general election.
Both voters said they’d like to see candidates have more online presence. Searching their names online, they had a hard time finding what policies or issues were important to the people whose names are on the ballot.
“It’s hard to compare candidates when you can’t line them all up,” Arianna said.
Knowing who people are and what exactly they stand for is something that mattered to Christian as a young voter.
“There’s a lot of importance in these positions,” Christian said.
Washington 1 precinct (The Pentecostals)
5:40 p.m. Washington Township 1 had the highest voter turnout, closing out the day with 413 ballots cast at The Pentecostals Church.
Poll inspector Darren Byrd said that everything on Election Day went surprisingly well, with no technical issues throughout the day, except a few minor power flickers.
Voters Tammy Wray and Taylor Arnold had many issues on the forefronts of their minds as they filled in their ballots.
Brown County native Wray said one of her greatest concerns is the condition of roads, being the worst she’s ever seen in her lifetime in the county.
She also said she wanted to see a change in faces in county seats.
With high levels of spending and high taxes, Wray and Arnold agreed that “there is nothing to show for it.”
Both wanted to make sure the people they wanted to run in the general election were on the ballot in the fall, which is why they decided to cast their vote in the primary election.
5:50 p.m. Three provisional ballots were offered to voters who were at the wrong precinct with no time to make it to the correct location.
6:05 p.m. Two individuals arrived at the polls just minutes after the doors were closed to the public.
All precinct results are in, absentee votes continue to be counted
9 p.m. Vote totals from all 11 precincts are in as officials work to count votes cast during early voting.
Brown County Election Board President Mark Williams said earlier today the number of votes cast either by mail or in-person during early voting totaled around 800.
Based on results from the 11 precincts, incumbent Commissioner Diana Biddle was defeated by challenger Ronald Sanders by 215 votes. Republican John Kennard received 424 votes in the District 1 commissioners race.
Republican Brad Stogsdill received 1,117 votes in the race for sheriff. Republican sheriff candidate Chad Williams received 665 votes and 189 votes were cast for Republican Scott Bowling.
Based on results from the 11 precincts, incumbent Clerk Kathy Smith was defeated by Republican challenger Pearletta Banks by 126 votes. Smith received 841 votes to Banks’ 967 votes.
With more than 800 absentee votes yet to be counted the results of these races could change.
We will update the race results once we receive absentee vote totals.
10 p.m. Absentee vote totals are in and the winners of local races have not changed.
The final totals for the Republican District 1 commissioners race are as follows: Diana Biddle with 845 votes; John Kennard with 551 votes and Ronald Sanders won the race with 1,064 votes.
Sanders will run against Democrat Stephanie Porter Kritzer this fall. Kritzer received 495 votes this primary election.
Brad Stogsdill won the Republican race for sheriff of Brown County after receiving 1,486 votes. Republican Chad Williams received 870 votes and Scott Bowling received 226 votes in that race. A Democratic candidate did not file to run for sheriff.
Incumbent Clerk Kathy Smith was defeated by challenger Pearletta Banks after Banks received 1,337 votes to Smith’s 1,048. A Democratic candidate did not file to run for clerk.
Read next week’s Brown County Democrat for complete coverage of the primary election.
