The Starke County Election Board will make a fourth attempt at approving a vote center plan. It once again failed to get the required unanimous vote during a special meeting Monday. Board Member Harrison Fields again cast the opposing vote.
The election board will make yet another attempt to get unanimous approval tomorrow, which is the deadline to submit a vote center plan to the state in time for this year’s election cycle. That drew some frustration from Fields. “How may times are we going to vote on this?” he asked. “I ask you. How many times are we going to vote on it? . . . I am not in favor of it.”
One of his main concerns Monday was that the procedure recommended by the state wasn’t fully followed. Specifically, the election board never formed a committee to do the legwork. But Board President Marcia Bedrock noted that the committee was a recommendation, not a requirement, and that most of the people who would’ve been on the committee have been attending regular election board meetings anyway.
Fields also wanted to revisit the idea of using the North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Station as a satellite early voting location, rather than the library. “I was assured yesterday by the fire chief, Mr. [Joe] Leszek, that fire department building is available, which is a much better place,” Fields said.
Clerk Bernadette Welter-Manuel asked, “Okay, so why haven’t you brought it to any of the meetings before now?”
“That’s all I’m going to say,” Fields replied. “We took the vote.”
A big challenge at this point is that there isn’t enough money in the 2020 budget to continue using precinct polling places. Using vote centers, the primary and general elections would cost the county under $20,000. With precincts, it would be almost $30,000, which is more than $5,700 over budget.
Auditor Rachel Oesterreich said the county council is legally required to fund the election, but approving an additional appropriation could impact the county’s future spending ability. “Now for those of you that don’t know budgets, when you do an additional appropriation, that affects your 2021 budget,” the auditor explained. “So for 2021, we could have budget cuts, which could affect over 200 county employees not getting raises, different departments having to cut back on staff or whatever else that they need to cut back on.”
Welter-Manuel felt that if the board can’t approve a vote center plan to keep this year’s elections on-budget, the board members shouldn’t get paid for the year. Her motion to that effect passed by a vote of two-to-one, with Fields again opposing.
“You’re going to cut the election board. Are you going to cut your pay over there?” Fields asked.
“That is part of my pay,” the clerk responded. “All three of us get paid out of the same thing.”
“Fine, cut it,” Fields replied. “I don’t care. I’m not destitute yet. See, this is how it should not be. This kind of conversation should not be. Should not be at all. Should not be at all!” Fields also voiced concern that the clerk had placed an ad in a newspaper about the potential switch to vote centers and that Bedrock notified him of Monday’s meeting by certified letter.
Tomorrow’s Starke County Election Board meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. in Starke County Annex Building No. 1.
