Election Day has come and gone, with ten provisional ballots being added to the final count during a Brown County Election Board meeting two weeks ago.
Before provisional ballots issued at precincts were counted, four ballots that were mailed in were taken into consideration.
Brown County Clerk’s Office employees had checked the post office box at 3 p.m. on Election Day and there were no mailed-in ballots.
In the days following Election Day, there were four ballots in the PO box. Two were postmarked by the post office on Nov. 8, but the clerk’s office did not receive the ballots until Nov. 9.
The other two were postmarked and received on Nov. 10.
As they were not received by Election Day on Nov. 8, the ballots were unanimously rejected by the election board.
Election Board Republican Chair Mark Williams said that the rejections were a result of a “gap in the processes of the postal department.”
A total of 39 provisional ballots were taken under consideration by the election board in a meeting in the Salmon Room on Nov. 18.
For absentee voting, three provisional ballots were issued and only one was accepted.
The accepted ballot was for a voter who was unable to provide their ID in the Salmon Room, where early voting was held. The voter’s spouse brought their ID into the clerk’s office on Nov. 15.
Two other provisional ballots issued to voters during early voting were denied by the election board.
One was for a voter who had not voted since 2013 and therefore was canceled in the State Voter Registration System (SVRS). The voter had moved several times within Brown County, Brown County Clerk Kathy Smith said, and incorrectly cast a Van Buren Township ballot when they reside in Washington 3.
The voter has since updated their voter registration, Smith said.
The other voter was not a registered voter in Brown County, but in Bartholomew County.
Three ballots from the Van Buren precinct were accepted, all of which were for voters who were not in the poll book due to an error with the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
The BMV showed the voters as living in Bartholomew County, though the election board confirmed their residences were in Brown County.
Certificates of error were issued for the three ballots and they were counted.
Of the ballots in Van Buren that were rejected, two were for an individuals who were not registered to vote and the third was for an individual registered to vote in Bartholomew County.
In Jackson 2, three of five provisional ballots were rejected.
One was for an individual who was not registered to vote and two were for voters registered in other counties.
Of the accepted ballots, one was for a voter whose ballot did not have a section completed by the precinct inspector. The voter was listed in the poll book.
The other accepted ballot was for a voter who visited the Salmon Room to vote early on Oct. 22, but left after checking in to vote and finding out their spouse was not registered to vote.
They did not sign the poll book or cast a ballot and returned to vote in person at their precinct on Election Day, but the poll book listed them as already having voted.
No provisional ballots in Jackson 3 and 4 were accepted.
In Jackson 3, both voters were registered to vote in other counties and the voter in Jackson 4 was a poll worker who had forgotten to vote early and cast their vote on Election Day in the wrong precinct.
No provisional ballots were issued at Jackson 1.
Washington 1 had three provisional ballots that were accepted and three rejected.
One accepted ballot was for a voter who was unable to provide their ID on Election Day and later presented it in the clerk’s office.
The other accepted ballots were for two voters who share a name, but are “junior” and “senior,” and were merged by the BMV.
Both voters presented their IDs and the issue was rectified.
Two of the rejected ballots were for voters registered in Jackson 4. The third rejected ballot was issued to a voter who was registered in Hamilton County.
No ballots in Washington 2 or 3 were accepted.
One voter who cast a provisional ballot in Washington 2 was actually registered in Jackson 4. Another was still registered in Hancock County.
In Washington 3, one voter was canceled in Madison County and not registered to vote in Brown County. Another was registered in Monroe County.
The two other rejected ballots were for voters who were not registered to vote.
At the three precincts in Hamblen Township, only two of the ten provisional ballots issued were accepted by the board.
The four provisional ballots issued in Hamblen 1 were all rejected by the election board.
One voter was not in the poll book due to a last name change and they also voted in the wrong precinct.
Another voter was in the poll book but should have voted in Hamblen 2 and one was registered in Johnson County.
A ballot was also rejected for an individual who was not registered to vote.
The accepted ballots were in Hamblen 2 and 3.
In Hamblen 2, the accepted ballot was for a voter who had gotten married and their last name had changed and was different from their voter registration.
The rejected ballots in Hamblen 2 were for an individual who was not registered to vote, one who was canceled by SVRS in 2014 and a voter registered in Marion County.
In Hamblen 3, the accepted ballot was for a voter whose ID and registration were “merged” with their twin sibling by the BMV.
The only other provisional ballot issued in Hamblen 3 was rejected and was for a voter who was registered in Johnson County.
After the board decided which provisional ballots could be counted, the provisional ballot counters opened the 11 ballot envelopes and examined each ballot to determine if it would be counted.
After opening the ballot envelopes, they found that one was not signed by the clerks of the precinct and that ballot was then rejected.
The board unanimously voted to count the accepted ballots which were put through the voting count machine.
Election results were not affected by the additional provisional ballots included in vote totals.
