Quinn Purtee, left and Brandi Ireland with their dog River on Election Day Nov. 7. Quinn Purtee was among the last to cast his ballot before the polls closed at 6 p.m.
As of press time, Lance Miller and Rex Watters III, have won the election for two Town Council seats. Both finished in a tie with 116 votes each. Bruce Gould was in third place with five fewer votes.
But, these totals aren’t yet final. There are 11 provisional ballots not yet counted. That is enough that it could change the election outcome, depending on whether those ballots are allowed to be counted, or not.
According to Brenda Young, Clerk-Treasurer for the town, the Election Board will meet today (Wednesday, Nov. 15) to go over the provisional ballots.
What are Provisional ballots?
Provisional ballots are conditional ballots. They may or may not be counted. If a voter’s eligibility to vote is in question, or “challenged”, they may vote a provisional ballot, instead of a regular ballot.
Whether a provisional ballot counts or not will depend on whether the ballot can be ”cured”, i.e. if the voter’s eligibility to vote can be verified with further information.
Why wouldn’t a voter be allowed to vote a regular, uncontested ballot?
It happens when a voter isn’t listed in the poll book. Sometimes there is a problem with ID, or an address, or a signature, or the voter is in the wrong precinct. Then the voter may only be able to vote a Provisional ballot. Since the provisional ballots may, or may not, count they are kept separate. They are not counted on Election Day. Only regular, uncontested ballots are tallied on Election Day. Provisional ballots must first be cured and approved before they are counted. If they are not cured, they won’t be counted.
In this Municipal Election, some voters who believe they live inside Nashville Town limits were not listed in the poll book for the town precinct: Washington 2. They weren’t allowed to vote a regular ballot, just a provisional ballot. If confirmed they do live in Washington 2, the error can be fixed so their provisional ballot may be approved and counted.
What does a voter need to do to make their provisional ballot count?
Take action before the deadline! The deadline for a voter to cure their provisional ballot is 12 noon, 10 days after the election. That’s high noon, Friday, Nov. 17 for this election. Voters have to provide information to prove they are eligible to vote before the deadline.
Find out what you need to cure your ballot so it counts!
Call the Clerk’s office to see what you need. For this Election, contact the Town Clerk’s office: (812) 988-7064. Town Hall, 200 Commercial Street Nashville, IN 47448. The Town Clerk can tell you what you need to cure your ballot, whether it is ID or something else. The Town will also be working with the County and State Election Division to see if the precincts for addresses in question are accurate, or need to be corrected in the State Voter Registration System (SVRS). Brenda Young, Town Clerk, and the Town Election Board members will do what they can to get questions answered to allow every eligible voter’s ballot to be counted.
If you need further information, you might contact the Indiana State Election Division staff for assistance: https://www.in.gov/sos/elections/ied-staff/.
Once you know what you need, take the required documentation in to the Town Clerk’s office. They plan to have a meeting Nov. 15 where they hope all provisional ballots are cured, but if there is an outlier, that outlier still has until 11/17 to cure their ballot.
Provisional Ballot outcomes will be determined Nov. 17.
The Town Election Board will meet to officially evaluate every provisional ballot.
The election board uses whatever information they have to assess provisional voter eligibility. If a voter does not follow up, there may be nothing the election board can do to approve a provisional ballot. If a voter makes sure they take in information requested, it can make the difference between Yea or Nay!
There are enough provisional ballots in this Nashville Town Election that they may change the outcome of the election. Each approved ballot will be added in to the election vote totals. Stay tuned. Every vote matters.
