Brown County is turning out!
Indiana has nearly the lowest voter turn out in the nation. Voters in Brown County seem ready to help change that. Voting has been pretty steady at Eagle Park’s early voting. Tuesday the 15th, two sets of poll clerks were in place to help keep the flow going and keep the wait time short.
Doris Kinnaird says she likes voting early at Eagle Park and that the location is convenient and it’s a smaller crowd. She said she was in and out quickly. She worked the polls during the last presidential election and she thought the Eagle Park voting process was very smooth and easy.
Joe and Helen Barger moved to Brown County recently. They’d previously lived in Fort Wayne, and just built their dream home here. While their home was in construction, they lived in Columbus, so they voted in Bartholomew County for the 2024 Primary.
They liked voting by hand-marked paper ballots in Brown County, compared to voting on electronic machines in Bartholomew County and in Fort Wayne (Allen County).
Helen joked it was like being back in school, filling in the bubble on tests. “Marking ballots by hand really helped me focus more on the names, because I had to fill in the oval by each candidate I wanted. … I think it’s faster than voting on a machine. too, because I don’t have to go back and review. I know what I marked,” Helen said, and Joe agreed.
When they moved to Brown County, they found the Nashville Bureau of Motor Vehicles to be easy to work with to update their drivers’ licenses with their new address. They did have a bit of a scramble to beat voter registration deadlines to obtain the required proof of residency documents, but they got a utility bill and bank statement in time. Then they said “yes!” when the BMV asked if they wanted their voter registration updated, making updating the voter info pretty seamless. They really enjoyed the easy Brown County voting experience.
And, they love Brown County, appreciating every day the views of forests and fields when they awake.
Shari Frank is president of the League of Women Voters of Brown County and a credentialed media watcher for The Brown County Democrat. Learn more about the League of Women voters at lwv.org/local-leagues/lwv-brown-county.
