The Starke County Election Board members made a change to early voting in the Vote Center Plan Wednesday afternoon, but the entire plan again failed to pass with a 2-1 vote.
The vote has to be unanimous.
The dissenting vote came from Harrison Fields who stressed that he’s not against Vote Centers, but this particular plan. He said a committee meeting held the previous week showed promising progress as a lot of items were discussed that aren’t in the current plan.
One concern that Fields brought up in his conversation was he was unsure if there were enough electrical outlets at the Nancy J. Dembowski Community Center to accommodate all of the voting machines as outlined in the Vote Center Plan.
Since precinct-style voting will occur in the May Primary Election, Clerk Bernadette Welter Manuel commented that the poll workers will get a $10 stipend in their pay for food, but other than that stipend, there will not be money to purchase food for the workers as in the past. This drew concern from Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Houston.
Houston stated, “I’d like to go on the record to say that I personally object to that. I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll say that I’ve heard from a lot of people about this issue and they’d like to have food just like it’s always been.”
As it’s been explained, when the budget for the election was discussed with the Starke County Council last summer, it was thought that the Vote Center Plan would be approved which would mean a reduction in poll workers for the elections. With that information, the budget was cut to include food to feed the reduced number of poll workers.
Houston added that it’s hard to find poll workers, and this decision may make it more difficult.
If you haven’t registered to vote in the May Primary Election, you may do so at the Starke County Clerk’s Office in the Starke County Courthouse or online at indianavoters.in.gov.
