The Election Board had its public hearing on Jan. 30 in the County Office Building. It was a full house, around three dozen people in attendance. They discussed the idea of enacting voting centers to replace the already established, nine polling locations in 11 precincts. The proposal included five potential sites around the county that could be used as voting centers.

Each voting center would be open on all presidential and mid-term elections, including general and primary election days. The five suggested locations drafted in the revised vote center plan are as follows, Eagle Park, Southern Brown Volunteer Fire Department, Fruitdale Volunteer Fire Department, Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Company and Church of the Lakes.

Four of the five are already being used as polling sites. However these five locations would be expected to house the entirety of 11 precincts on all election days. Eagle Park is also stated in the draft revision to be expected to open for early and absentee voting, which would require it to be available 28 days prior to election day.

Many individuals on the opposing side have concerns about the five locations being able to hold as many people as necessary on election days, however the election board did not seem to hold the same concerns. They claimed, in the draft, that only one voting center is required per 10,000 active voters, and their proposed plan would still provide one center per around 2,400 Brown County voters.

The election board said it was also concerned about the amount of poll workers needed for typical precincts. They believed it would be easier and cheaper to recruit less poll workers for five locations, instead of nine. According to their data presented, the costs for all election personnel for nine precinct locations including one inspector, two judges and two clerks was around $17,640, whereas with only five voting centers, the number would drop to around $4,450. The proposal also includes the idea of using pollbooks for voter tracking. This would alleviate the poll workers by allowing the check-in process to be partially automated.

One of the largest benefits listed in the proposal, is that voting centers will allow for citizens to vote at any of the five locations, instead of assigning them a place that might be incovenient. This concept eliminates the need for provisional ballots because citizens will be able to vote regardless of where they vote. In the past, a vote cast in the wrong location was held as a provisional vote. According to Pearletta Banks, Brown County Clerk and Secretary, not only will each voting center have the ballots for every precinct, they will also have the ability to print ballots on demand.

The meeting was geared toward providing the benefits behind voting centers, while only acknowledging two potential justifiable concerns citizens might hold. The first concern they referenced was the need for more Freedom Voting Machines. Four extra machines would cost an additional $15,960 on top of the lease the county has. Lack of extra polling locations was the only other concern they referenced.

The Election Board did not accept any comments or questions from the public, which received a few grumbles from the audience. Cindy Wolpert, proxy for Dick Judson, stated that their entire purpose for the meeting was to present the plan and provide information. They read everything off slideshows and documents they also presented to the public, and made minimal comments.

For all questions and concerns, individuals are encouraged to e-mail the Election Board via [email protected]. They will be accepting emails for the next 30 days, after which they will hold another meeting to address the concerns as well as provide an updated proposal. A date for the next meeting was not announced at the meeting.